'"Little...flower?" Doe's voice echoed through the cavern as soon as she saw the blonde haired girl. The rest of the group looked at the girl confused as she just stood there staring blankly in their direction.
"Is this not what you have been yearning for? It is truly your daughter, assassin. Do you not wish to have her in your arms again?" the necromancer was now gaining confidence after he saw her reaction.
Doe was stunned as she looked at her daughter's figure just standing there looking exactly as she had the last time she saw her 2 years ago.
Her blade which was pointed at the necromancer was slowly lowered as she took a step in the direction of her child. She fought the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes as she felt a huge wave of emotions wash over her!
Ever since that night, she had turned from a feared, cold blooded assassin to a broken woman who cried every night over the loss of her only daughter.
She had cried and cursed and blamed the death of her daughter on the stupid old noble, the damned necromancer, then eventually on herself.
Why did she take her daughter to the city with her to settle old scores? Why did she waste so much time killing the noble and his son!? Why did she allow herself to be tracked down by the necromancer when she was escaping!!? Why did she fail to protect her daughter!!!
Those questions had slammed hard against her conscience over and over again in every single night for 2 years and each time, it broke her down resulting in her crying herself to sleep until her voice turned hoarse.
The only thing that kept her sanity all those long nights was to eventually track down the person ultimately responsible and venting her vengeance upon him!
She had never expected to see her daughter again and now that she was staring at her figure standing in the same room as her. She couldn't help but lose control over her emotions.
Just like the necromancer said, she wanted to go forward and have her daughter in her arms. She wanted to hug her tight and tell her it will be alright. She wanted to take her to the place where there were plenty of beautiful flowers just like she promised her. She really wanted to hear her call her 'mama' again and hand her a pill she made but…..
As soon as she took a step forward, a gentle hand on her shoulder stopped her. She slowly turned her head around in a daze to look at who stopped her and saw the face of the light priestess, Snow.
Snow was already in tears as she shook her head at Doe when she looked at her. She could already piece together what was going on and she couldn't help but feel sad about it. She couldn't imagine how cruel this situation would feel if she was in her position.
Sing stood there with a complicated look on his face as he looked at them while Iron was confused as he turned his gaze from the small girl in white to Doe.
Rastel was also having a hard time dealing with the situation. He already had a vague idea of what the situation was and he honestly wasn't sure how to deal with it or console Doe.
Doe was still looking at Snow in a daze as if she couldn't recognize her. She turned her gaze to the hand stopping her before looking back at the face.
"I want to go to my daughter" her voice came out as a silent whisper.
Snow couldn't help the tears that flowed heavily from her eyes as she could only shake her head vigorously.
"I want to go and see my daughter. What do you think you are doing?" this time, Doe's voice came out like a small growl as she emitted a trace of killing intent.
But this didn't deter Snow, instead she pulled Doe in and gave her a deep hug which took her surprise and left her standing stiffly.
"You c-can't go and see her now. W-why don't we go out for a minute and let the boys handle the rest?" Snow's voice came out in small sobs.
"Why? My daughter is right there" Doe's voice was really low as if she wanted to burst into tears also.
"Y-you see, th-that is- "Snow stuttered to find the right words to say.
"She is already dead!" Iron's voice suddenly echoed out.
Everybody in the room looked at him in shock as Doe's eyes slowly widened from his words.
Rastel almost face palmed from the terrible lack of tact. Of course it was obvious the girl was already dead! She came out of a pile of corpses in the first place! Not to mention her pale face and lack of reaction to seeing her mother, it wasn't something that needed to be mentioned.
But Doe was already overcome by her emotions and when people were like that, truth would be twisted to match with their perception of the world. Be it love, hate, or immense grief.
And just like Rastel thought, Doe was very aware that her daughter was already dead. But she didn't wasn't to believe it, she couldn't afford to believe it.
"No.... that can't be…." She whispered slowly as her voice cracked.
Snow just hugged her tightly as she cried harder. Doe was suddenly jolted awake from her illusions and she couldn't help but break down.
Tears, hot wet tears poured heavily from her face as she silently cried into snow's shoulder. She released all her pent up emotions and immediately felt herself getting weak in the knees. Her daughter…... was already dead.
The necromancer had just been watching the scene quietly all the while and was slowly counting down time. This was exactly the kind of result he wanted from bringing out the body of the assassin's daughter.
'Yes! Good! Use this chance to cry to your heart's content. You would soon die anyway' he thought sinisterly as he decided to add more fuel to the fire.
"Do you really not wish to hug your daughter instead assassin? She hasn't seen you for two years and you're been this cruel to her?" he added suggestively.
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Rastel and Doe's voice suddenly yelled out at the same time.
Doe snapped out her grief with alarming speed as her face scrunched up in rage! From his own position, Rastel didn't hesitate to charge the elf. He had never seen such a despicable bastard in his entire life!
Doe, also unwilling to let it be left Snow's embrace who looked at her in a daze as she took out three needles from under her sleeves and threw it with amazing accuracy at the necromancer.
The elf squealed in pain as two stabbed at his right hand that was previously attacked, turning the entire arm a sick purple that hanged uselessly by his side. The other stabbed at his fat stomach and hung there.
"Aeeeiiioou!" the pain felt intense as he screamed.
This was not the outcome he envisioned. He thought she would break down more but instead, he was been viciously attacked.
Rastel reached the necromancer just at this point and grabbed his left hand at the wrist and with a turn and twist, snapped the joint completely clean.
"Heeeiiii!" the overweight elf screamed out in pain again as his cheek fat wobbled.
Rastel didn't stop there, he had to make sure the necromancer was incapable of casting any more spells. He proceeded to snap his elbow and even shoulder joint just to vent his anger.
The elf screamed bloody murder from the pain as his squeals echoed throughout the entire cavern. Rastel dropped his body off on the floor and left him trembling in the intense pain.
He had never intended to kill the necromancer, that was for the members of the settlement to deal with. They, along with Doe were the ones with the greatest vendetta against him.
Seeing the elf on the floor trembling pathetically, Doe at first wanted to rush at him and rip him to shreds! But she suddenly caught sight of her daughter's figure that was still standing silently.
She turned to look at her body as fresh set of tears appeared in her eyes and she walked slowly and stood in front of her.
From her blonde hair to brown eyes and pale skin, she looked at her daughter's dead body before suddenly bending down and holding her in a deep embrace.
She sobbed silently and the rest of the team watched the sad reunion with complicated emotions.
Rastel looked on for a while before deciding to seek Iron's help to move the injured necromancer back to the settlement. He was the only one strong enough to move the elf's overweight body.
Just as he was turning, he saw the hand of Doe's daughter suddenly shift and the glint of a blade flashed. A small dagger stabbed deep into Doe's back and blood flowed freely while everyone stared in shock!
Before Rastel could react, the necromancer suddenly stood up and in a shambling run, rushed to the blood red pool bubbling in the middle and jumped in!
Snow and Sing rushed to Doe's side while Iron charged at the pool with Rastel. The pool started bubbling more vigorously as they neared and before anyone knew what was happening, a large shadow burst out from the pool.
SWOOOSH!
A large skeletal hand emerged from the liquid and slammed onto the cavern floor. Rastel and Iron immediately halted in shock as another hand emerged and landed right beside it.
BOOM!
The cavern trembled as small pieces of rock and earth started falling out of place.
The next thing that emerged was a large skeletal head looked monstrous in structure and it was followed by a massive skeletal frame of ribs and a long spinal cord.
Rastel and Iron quickly took multiple steps back as they retreated in haste, this was totally out of their league.
The skeletal undead that emerged from the pool was approximately 6 meters tall and had long arms and legs. It looked absolutely intimidating with its head scraping the ceiling as the blood red liquid flowed down the white bleached bones and the dark large eye sockets suddenly glowed with red fire!
As the skeleton emerged, they almost immediately heard the voice of the elven necromancer echo out. "Do you know how I found this cave?"
His voice had an ominous tinge to it. He was perched on the wide shoulder blade of the skeletal giant as he looked down on them. Rastel and Iron regrouped together with the rest.
"Countless years back I happened upon the trace of someone seriously injured." It was like he just wanted to tell them a story and nothing more.
"I followed the traces I found and came upon this cavern, freshly made. Now it wasn't as beautiful then. You see the fool who made it wasn't a disciple of good aesthetics as I am but he made this cavern solely by himself without any tools!" this time, the cavern ceiling was trembling greatly as it was torn apart by the large frame of the skeletal giant.
"I followed down the passage as quietly as I could and do you know what I found when I reached?" at this point, he started laughing loudly to himself.
"I found a devil! Can you believe? A devil, in this continent where no devils reside. And there he was, bleeding and half dead. A perfect specimen just left there for me by the gods!" the entire cavern was now trembling madly sending alarm bells through the minds of the group.
"Finishing him off was easy. And after that, I took over this cavern and had enough time to study his body as much as I could. The magic he used was very interesting, can you guess what it was?" he smiled grimly as he stared down at them.
"Explosion magic!" he suddenly exclaimed.
As he said that, Rastel suddenly heard a loud explosion to his left. He turned his head quickly to see the headless corpse of the devil leaning against the cavern wall with both hands laying atop.
The devil's hands glowed a bright red like it was lit up from the insides as a second explosion suddenly resounded throughout the cavern.
BOOM!!!
A huge crack forming from the point of the devil's impact expanded rapidly as it went around and split the entire cavern in two!
The walls of the cavern suddenly caved in as the entire hill around it sank into the ground to bury them alive.
Watching the walls close around them, Rastel sighed quietly in his mind before calling out.
"Amba"