Firebrand

Chapter 508: A Royal Burial

A Royal Burial

Atreus made a gesture for the others to remain back before he crossed the threshold to enter the great chamber. It was clearly a major burial place within the catacombs, easily measuring fifty feet or more across. Walking along the wall as he kept to the shadows, Atreus crept forward.

"No need to skulk about, my love. You tripped my glyph of warning when you first entered the catacombs." The maleficar raised her head and stood up. "I am sure it will come to blows between us, but I should like to talk first. After all, we are the last of our kind."

"Because of you," Atreus replied, stepping forward from the shadows to enter the light of the lamps surrounding her.

"It was your clumsy interference that led to Archen's destruction," Elena retorted.

"And if I had allowed you to finish, the outcome would have been no different." The spellbreaker slowly paced back and forth, keeping distance to both witch and jinni. "And already, you seek to repeat your mistake."

"The easiest way to travel."

"You should have fled on foot or by ship," Atreus told her. "But you never had patience, only arrogance."

"You should talk! You dare come to this place? You think you stand a chance against me?"

He ceased his pacing, standing still to look straight at her. Behind his back, magic began to glow around his hand. "Revenge is powerful motivation. Do you understand what you did to me? Three hundred years of suffering."

"You should not have interfered. You deserved your fate," she declared with bile in her voice. "You think the centuries have been easy for me? Cut off from magic, walking around this world of fools with their petty sorcery and useless powers!" Now she began to pace, worked up. "And always you, snapping at my heels –"

She was interrupted by Atreus releasing a spell, aimed straight at her.

***

With his two friends, Martel watched from the doorway as Atreus stepped out of the shadows. The latter spoke in Archean with the witch, leaving the firemage in the dark. Instead, he stared at the woman. She had little in common with the Julia he knew, whose personality and appearance both had been a deception. She was tall and thin, with flowing dark hair and a cruel countenance as she practically spat her words at the spellbreaker. And by her side floated the jinni, faceless except for the burning red eyes.

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Watching Atreus release his spell to attack her felt like a release for Martel as well; the fight had begun. His feelings washed away, replaced by instinct. He quickly stepped forward before releasing an elemental bolt of water, aimed at the spirit. It responded as expected, turning towards the firemage. Both mageknights moved around him, casting defensive spells and raising their weapons.

By the sarcophagus, the maleficar cast her own spell. From the alcoves in the walls, the dead began to rise.

***

The sight of the undead gave Martel a moment of panic, but he suppressed it. They had known to expect this, given the witch had necromantic powers; and as their early encounter showed, they could deal with these enemies. As long as they fought together, they could handle it. Though the jinni did complicate matters.

Martel released one ray of fire after another, burning skeleton upon skeleton. Maximilian swung his hammer, crushing bone with ease. As for Eleanor, her weapon with the golden edge seemed best suited for harming the jinni, and she went against the spirit.

The undead continued to swarm at them from all sides. Any notion of fighting next to each other was impossible as the room swarmed with enemies, and Eleanor constantly retreated to avoid the jinni grabbing her and suffocating her as it had done to them during their previous fights.

"The door!" Maximilian shouted.

Casting a quick glance towards it, Martel realised what he meant; although the darkness concealed most of it, the sound of countless bones moving towards them could be heard. Hundreds of dead lay buried in the tunnels nearby; the maleficar's power reached beyond this chamber, summoning an army to overwhelm them.

"I will hold them back!" the mageknight declared, as he moved to the doorway. "Deal with the others!"

Martel had a better idea. He could not use the spell inside the hall, as it would separate him and his friends, but it was well suited for a chokepoint. Acting swiftly with a thought of gratitude towards his training that let him cast the spell so quickly, Martel released his magic. A wall of flames rose up to create a living door with fire hot enough to incinerate any undead that might pass through.

"That works too," Maximilian admitted, turning back around to attack the nearest skeleton.

***

On the other side of the hall, the spellbreaker and the maleficar continued their fight. She had a dagger in her hand, glowing with magic in a sickly green colour. Constantly retreating, Atreus evaded her blade while flinging spells at her.

Suddenly, he had to jump away as the great stone lid on the sarcophagus was pushed down from the inside. It landed with a heavy sound on the floor, causing both to crack. Inside the coffin, another undead creature rose up. Unlike the others, where nothing remained but their bones, a circlet rested around his skull as a sign of royal power, while a tattered and faded robe covered his ribcage; his skeletal fingers clutched the hilt of a mace made from bronze and covered in strange symbols with the glow of magic upon them.

Moreover, as he rose to his full height to step out of the sarcophagus, his eyeholes shone with a cold, blue light. His head moved as if surveying the carnage taking place in his eternal home, desecrating his tomb. Stepping out of his coffin, his dreadful gaze fell upon the mageknights and the battlemage, destroying his subjects buried with him.

Despite having neither tongue nor lungs, the skeleton king released a blood-curdling scream that Martel felt rather than heard. With this as his battle cry and his fearsome mace held high, the risen undead charged the firemage.