- ABANDONED MINE -
Several days had passed since they arrived at the mine, the first few days had been spent identifying and clearing the bodies of the many Moriandian soldiers that had fallen.
Vedial had set aside his mission to locate the Greyhearts, and together with Reginald they had given [Moria's Peace] to all the bodies they managed to recover from the mine.
Unfortunately, Moria's peace could only work on Moriandians, for the unidentified bodies a different ceremony was done to purify the land.
"From a piece of your being we were brought forth into Morland, to serve you for all our existence and one day return to you having fulfilled our duty." Vedial repeated the common burial script they recited for their dead.
Reginald stood at a distance and bowed his head in respect, and after gathering enough mana for the spell, Vedial chanted the mass burial incantation.
"Tombs of old erected in our world, bridges of realms and sanctuaries of the fallen." Vedial then raised his arms in front of his face. "Descend on them, [Phantasmal - Mausoleum!]"
Suddenly a large magic circle appeared from beneath Vedial's aura-coated body and immediately etched itself around the pseudo graves. This was the first time Vedial had performed such a spell, and he had half expected it to be more vibrant.
Before he could embrace the dissatisfaction, a structure slowly appeared from within the magic circle.
The structure appeared ethereal and seemed to stutter from sight, the bodies within the false graves started to glow, and immediately disintegrated into millions of specks of light that looked like thousands of fireflies in the night.
"I can feel their presence..." Reginald acknowledged.
Vedial seemed to hear voices from a large number of people, it sounded like hundreds of people all speaking calmly at the same time.
All the bodies of the mortals that had fallen here dissipated together with the [Phantasmal Mausoleum], silence conquered the moment and Vedial let himself muse about a life after this one.
'I wonder if I am following the right path, perhaps the decider does not bother with such details.'
Vedial wondered.
'Or is there even a decider?'
The thoughts of postmortal events shrouded Vedial's mind in limbo until Reginald tapped his mentor's shoulder to remind him of the mission ahead.
"Now that the dead won't be a problem anymore, we can explore the mines without woe." Vedial stated.
"I still think we would have been in and out without the ascendancy even taking hold of them." Reginald remarked.
Vedial ignored his squire and made his way back to camp, he knew too well about the effects of atmospheric mana and dead bodies, the hordes of undead creatures that can be amassed in such places were out of the ordinary.
Negative Mana Ascendancy was a natural phenomenon in Morland, it usually occurred in areas where dead bodies were never buried, wherever you had dead bodies there was always residue mana that spilled from the body.
The process normally took years to occur, but in places where the atmosphere was frequently subjected to negative activities, the process would speed up and a naturally occurring necromancy would take place.
Dead bodies would come alive but would be subject to base instinct whether they killed or secluded themselves was dependent upon their nature.
Avoiding this process was one form of respect they could usher to the fallen, Vedial had also made sure that the soldier's identities were uncovered so that word could be sent to their families back in Moriandia.
A day after the tedious ceremonies, Vedial and Reginald made plans to venture into the mines and resume their search for the Greyhearts. Their notoriety was now spreading throughout Morland, and this was starting to cause problems for the Royal Army everywhere.
When exploring the first chamber of the mine, they came upon a map that depicted all the areas that had been dug into, the parts of the mine that had been explored, and a strange area that had been marked with a red cross.
"Seems like the battles took place inside the mines too."
Reginald noted the blood splatter across the wall, there was no body to be recovered but it appeared as though a full-grown mortal had been splattered against the wall.
When they first arrived at the mining camp they had found tens of bodies littered outside and within the first chamber, it had taken the two of them just over a day to recover all the bodies and consecrate the remains.
"Seems like this place has been a target for several groups." Reginald remarked. "I wonder what bandits and mercenaries would want in a place like this?"
Vedial understood why Reginald would be curious, he had been handed everything on a silver platter since birth, and when he became a Holy Knight squire, he missed out on the adventure that came from clearing dungeons, exploring the world, and haggling for equipment at an overpriced store.
"It's odd Lieutenant, that the Empire would send very few soldiers to guard this place." Reginald proceeded with his rambling. "It's no wonder they were defeated so easily, they were heavily outnumbered."
Superior numbers were a major factor in determining victory during a battle, however, soldiers from the Royal Army were heavily trained and geared. It would take a small force with powerful mortals to fight them in a head-on battle.
'Or the Greyhearts.'
Vedial surmised.
Reginald continued to explain more details on the things he had observed in the mine and the possibilities that may have pertained to those circumstances until they came across a descent in the mine's corridor.
The miners had suddenly dug vertically through the ground, the descent was wide and there seemed to be remnants of an elevator contraption on the wall nearby.
"This could be about twenty-five feet Lieutenant, can you see the bottom-"
Without subjecting himself further to Reginald's ramblings, Vedial plunged into the gaping shaft and Reginald quickly jumped to follow.
The two landed on their feet at the bottom with heavy thuds, they found the elevating contraption which had broken down due to reasons unknown to them. They continued to explore further through the shafts, this time they noticed strange symbols arrayed on the walls, the symbols appeared to have been carved manually.
"Seems like this place was mined recently, the markings around here are still fresh." Vedial commented as he went on ahead.
Mines were similar to dungeons in Morland, while they both harbored precious monsters and treasures, mines were made by mortals as they dug for treasure, whereas dungeons occurred naturally, a phenomenon which puzzled scholars to this day.
"These markings seem familiar, I am sure I have seen these in an ancient manuscript." Reginald drew his torch closer to the wall and examined the symbols.
When Vedial saw this he recalled the first time he had seen Reginald, it was back at the academy in Moriandia, as a new recruit he could barely stand up straight. The training was hard, and the armor heavy, Vedial regarded it an utter miracle that Reginald had even made it as a Holy Knight Squire.
Vedial came upon a wider chamber, he could tell that this too had been carved by the former miners.
It was a common style that they followed when mining minerals, first they would dig through the ground and when they came upon the precious rocks, the miners would expand their digging to a dome-like pattern as they collected the precious rocks within that area.
"Lieutenant, do you feel that?"
Vedial paused, he had noticed a strange presence when he first walked into the chamber. However, the presence had vanished altogether, until this moment.
"From below."
Reginald nodded.
Clairvoyance was Reginald's specialty, he has had a talent for this ability since his academy days.
Holy Knights were already kin individuals because of the type of magic they practiced, but Reginald possessed even more potent extrasensory abilities that had given the Holy Knight's a clandestine advantage in several situations.
'He'd managed to gauge the spell-less wizard's power before we even got to him.'
Vedial reminisced.
Reginald frivolously waved his torch around after sensing something with his odd gift, he was trying to locate a way for them to go deeper underground.
'At the academy, I was considered a genius, a once-in-a-lifetime prodigy.'
"Lieutenant, over here!"
Vedial followed Reginald as he had come upon stairs that had been covered by rubble, the two easily pushed the boulders aside as they descended the flight of ancient stairs.
'When Reginald's ability was announced to the Holy Knights, even the Morning Star took an interest in him.'
"I can feel them closer Lieutenant."
A pile of boulders and dirt blocked the path ahead of them, Vedial quickly took out his sword and using the hilt smashed through the rocks, and the stairs shattered in the process.
This sent the two knights falling through the gap that opened where the boulders had been, the knights crash-landed in another chamber that was located below the previous one.
The pungent aura flooded the chamber and Vedial could feel the source of this malignant aura begin to manifest. Reginald suddenly fell to his knees, Vedial rushed to his squire, but Reginald stopped him by raising an erect thumb.
"I am alright, Lieutenant."
"No, you are not." Vedial reached his hand out to Reginald and in his palm was a glowing white potion. "Take this, it's a cleansing potion."
Suddenly, a large pillar came toppling down from one of the walls, and when Reginald raised his torch towards the noise, the knights saw a stone slab inscribed with the same symbols they had seen carved into the walls of the tunnels above.
"What is this place?"
Vedial sighed.
"An ancient burial crypt."