25 Chapter 25 (2/2)

The group of them tore through the mass of ghouls, their black blood covering their bodies, seeping into their clothes. They stood ankle-deep in the black goo, one of the conscripts went down under the combined force of multiple ghouls. Three took the oppertunity to swiftly bond one of the ghouls assualting him, turning the monster against its brethren. They fought against the onslaught for several minutes before the fight eventuall died down. Three took a deep breath, that had been uncomfortable.

He checked the others, Reg had a gash over his fore arm and Tillian had a scratch above his ear, no one had been heavily injured. Harold applied some first-aid to the wounds and they made their way even deeper into the caves. Three was worried they would have to fight against more waves of undead, this one had been a close call. Perhaps not for him or Crimson but the villagers had been wounded, a stronger force might be able to kill them.

The next cavern however, was well lit covered in shelves, scrolls and books. Bones littered the area, marking covered the walls, none of them making any sense to Three. In the middle of the cavern bent over a dark heavy mahogany table stood a young woman, her hair was clitted and bunched together, hiding much of its original frizzles. Her robe, if it could be called a robe, was torn dirty and messed up. She was so focused on the parchment that she had not even noticed them entering. Three softly made his way forward, their attempt at sneaking failed however when one of the conscripts stepped on a bone and it made an audible snap. The young woman twisted facing them.

Her musty green eyes had prominent dark circles lining them, her jaw was open as she stared at the group of them in fright. She stepped back and stumbled over the bones she smacked into the table, her head started bleeding but she got back up to her feet, holding her shaking arms between her and them.

”Y-you are them, here to take me, I tried to hide! Tried to get away, moved far, far, very far north! But you still find me!? Go! LEAVE!” The girl shrieked, tossing parchment, an inkpot and whatever else was in reach at Three, Three didn't even try to dodge, the items bouncing off him. He stepped forward with large determined steps. The girl tried to scramble away from him, her messy blond hair covering her face.

Three ignored her attempts and gently, but firmly picked her up and held her.

”WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH ME?!” She screeched. ”I WILL NO LONGER BE SUBJECT TO YOUR FILTHY EXPERIMENTS!”

Her words shook Three, who dropped her and stared at her.

”Hags?” He asked, his face inches from hers

She tried to back away as she stared into his eyes, ”W-what?”

”Hags? Put you in cage? Poke you with magic, force things into you body?” He asked insistantly.

Her eyes widened a bit, ”Y-yes. A-are you one of them?!” Suddenly she started trembling and tried to crawl away.

Three shook his head, he pulled the Status plate off his chain and held it out for her. She stared at the plate then stared back at him, he nodded towards her and pushed the plate in her hands. She carefully took it off his hands before scurrying back under the table. She looked at the status plate reading what it said, as her eyes widened she crawled back forward slightly.

”They cage you too?” She softly asked.

Three nodded.

”You are not here t-to take me back?” She whispered.

”To those hags?” He hissed, ”If I ever see them again I will destroy them and anything linked to them untill nothing is left.”

”So you are not here to k-kill me?” She asked tilting her head.

”Actually we are... were here to kill you.” Three told her honestly.

She scurryed further under the table. ”W-why!” She squeeked.

”Your undead have been laying siege to the village of these men.” He said pointing to the men behind him, they had stayed back, staring curiously but letting Three handle the situation.

”Impossible.” She said, her eyes suddenly gaining focus. ”I ordered them not to travel more than a day away from the caves, to fight whatever they could and then return.”

”Their village is only a few hours travel from here.” Three stated.

The girl faltered as she looked at the men behind her and then back at Three. ”Really?” She whispered.

”Really.”

She stood up from under the table and peeked past Three at the men behind him.

”S-Sorry!” She softly yelled.

The men blinked, Tillian was actually blushing scratching the back of his head. Harold coughed scratching his beard. ”It's not that bad miss, no one was seriously injured.”

She smiled softly, as she peeked past Three at the elderly man.

”I didn't kill or hurt anyone?”

Reg and Tillian tried to not so subtly hide their injuries, the girl was so focused on Harold however that she did not notice.

”Not a one.”

The girl sagged in relief, before murmering nearly inaudible to herself. ”I almost became like them, I almost hurt people.” She stiffled a sob as she wiped her eyes.

”How did you even create that many undead?” Three asked.

The girl piped up at the mention of undead. ”This cave leads to ancient tombs, and there is a large battlefield with many mass graves!” Then she pulled Three over to a table. ”Skeletons I made myself! I put a lot of Warmors into a pit, I keep them in a pit and they breed!” She showed him diagrams of skeletons, and drawings and sketchings how to replace bones and create different types.

”I started tinkering with their bones, and was able to create skeletons from them! Warmors are great, they fatten up from the world energy, they live off the stuff. Then they breed and more and more of them appear, and I don't need to feed them or anything! Then I just send some undead to gather the bones and I can create more!”

She started excitedly explaining her undead and their many applications to Three, the young man followed her akwardly as he glanced to the other men for help. They stood there looking as lost as he did.

This was definetly not how he had expected the day to go.