- UNDERGROUND BURIAL CRYPT -
The repugnant odour filled the space around them just as the ominous presence began to creep toward the two Holy Knights.
Reginald took a few clumsy steps backward then bumped into Vedial who immediately grabbed his shoulder to calm his squire down.
"Lieutenant..."
"Stand firm Reginald, do not be frightened by the dead." Vedial assured his squire while his gaze pierced into the darkness.
Vedial could feel the malignant aura strongly from where he stood, so he understood how his sensitive squire must have felt with his magnified clairvoyance abilities.
Reginald recovered from his temporal fright and followed Vedial behind as they both proceeded toward the entrance of the crypt.
"These carvings, they are the same as the ones on the walls in the previous chamber..." Reginald noticed when they approached the fallen object.
"Lieutenant, do you feel them?"
Vedial's gaze had remained fixated on the dark entrance that seemed to engulf the light from their torches. The presence that was coming from the dark crypt made the young Holy Knight think twice about their venture, and for a moment he would have relented.
"Indeed." Vedial responded to Reginald's earlier query. "Make copies of the inscriptions and make sure you get them back to scholars in Moriandia."
Vedial instructed his squire who immediately took out a blank scroll and placed it over the large rock carrying the markings.
"[Luminous Mimeo]."
A flash of light appeared beneath the scroll and the inscription on the rock, then Reginald turned over the scroll to reveal the same markings on the rock to have been copied onto the once-blank scroll.
"Your disdain for paperwork has granted you new skill I see." Vedial commended his squire sarcastically.
"Anything to make the work bearable Lieutenant."
The two knights chuckled.
For a moment, the possibility that they would have to fight for their lives if they pressed further seemed to have been forgotten.
"I'm not letting you go down there alone Lieutenant." Reginald stated to Vedial having discerned his intentions from the start. "You know I won't hold you back, but if you knock me out now I will only be a burden later."
'True.'
It was known for a fact that Holy Knights grew more powerful together, records of testimonies of group feats of the knights could be heard from anywhere across Morland.
"It would be stupid of me to go in alone, however, it would be foolish for us to go in together." Vedial started. "If there is a threat bigger than the Holy Knights, who would be left to send word to Moriandia?"
"There is no threat bigger than the Holy Knights." Reginald responded adamantly.
"Foolishness."
Vedial could only contain the pride he felt for his squire, it seemed that Reginald was the one thinking clearly now. Regardless of what lay behind this tomb, the knights had near-limitless potential and they could stand against anything in or within Morland.
"If anything happens to me down there..." Vedial re-stated.
"I understand Lieutenant."
As the two knights approached the darkened entrance they could feel the pungent aura thicken in the air like a mist.
The two stood on the threshold for a moment, Vedial could suddenly feel goosebumps across his body. However, the break of fear would not stop them from proceeding.
'Holy Knights never go back on their word.' Vedial mused.
When the two knights took the first step inside the dark tomb, the enchantments on their armors immediately came undone, and Vedial could feel the various buffs he had begun to wane.
As the two knights descended the flight of stairs, they could feel the aura around them thicken so that Vedial could nearly clasp it in his hand.
"You can almost catch it..." Reginald whispered.
"Or it can catch you." Vedial responded while pointing his torch toward the ground.
A trail of shadowy tentacles suddenly retracted from the two knights, even Reginald had not been able to sense their approach. Vedial pulled out his sword, but the tentacles vanished in the shadows.
"They are gone?"
Suddenly the tomb began to rumble, the two knights could feel the source of the rumbling beneath them. However, the roof of the tomb started to crumble and pieces of rock fell from it.
Vedial pushed Reginald back and slashed at the rock that nearly crushed him, but more rocks came crashing down so he had to jump back and avoid them altogether.
When the rumbling stopped, Vedial saw that the entrance they had used was partially blocked by the rubble. He and his squire had been separated by a mound of large rocks and boulders.
"Lieutenant!"
"I'm fine! Keep your voice down!" Vedial hushed Reginald.
"I can't see you, do you still have your light?" Reginald queried.
"[A guide to the seer and a reel to the sightless], come forth [Moria's Spark]!" Vedial responded with a brief incantation that suddenly generated a small light above his head. "I will go on ahead."
"Wait, Lieutenant?!"
The small light immediately expanded like an illustrious miniature sun and brightened this part of the tomb, the thick darkness dissipated in the illumination like the morning dew under a bright dawn sun.
Vedial pressed further into the tomb leaving Reginald to wait for him, as he went further he could see the light from [Moria's Spark] begin to shrink as the thick darkness grew larger.
A hissing noise could be heard from [Moria's Spark] like a hot searing rod stamping fresh skin, Vedial knew there was something lurking in the darkness as [Moria's Spark] was no mere illumination spell.
[Moria's Spark] could pacify some dark forces and repel the rest, it was a spell that could be used to ward off evil and purify corrupted individuals in certain situations.
At the end of the tomb's chamber, Vedial encountered what looked like a threshold to another part of the tomb.
The light from Moria's Spark could barely light up this chamber, but he could see what looked like a sarcophagus in the center of that chamber, and more sarcophagi were embedded in the walls around it.
"The style of burial..." Vedial murmured. "How old is this place? What sort of civilization did this to their kin?"
The light from [Moria's Spark] flickered above Vedial's head, he could feel the resistance from the darkness within the tomb begin to grow. Even the hairs across his body stood on ends like a perpetual involuntary flight signal.
Vedial immediately took out a high-grade mana potion from his satchel and drained it on the spot, the light from [Moria's Spark] grew bright once more and ceased flickering.
All of a sudden a putrid scent of burning flesh filled the air, Vedial looked around the newly discovered chamber and noticed that one of the sarcophagi began to rumble as white smoke gathered above it like rain clouds.
"Aaaaargh!"
With a thudding crash, the cover of the sarcophagus was sent flying to the roof of the chamber and immediately a shadow jumped out of the sarcophagus and slithered to one of the dark corners of the chamber.
Vedial drew his sword quickly and readied himself for combat, as the stench of death filled the air.
It was rare for a Holy Knight to clear a dungeon alone, they usually worked in pairs and groups of three. However, in rare circumstances, all Holy Knights excluding the Morning Star would be gathered up in one place for a Dungeon Crusade.
A Dungeon Crusade was the most extreme form of a dungeon-clearing activity, it was the rarest form since it took a dungeon with extremely powerful entities to garner the attention of all twelve Holy Knights.
'Three crusades in six years and only once have I ever felt this rush of fear before.'
A pair of red eyes peered at Vedial from one of the dark corners that the light from [Moria's Spark] could not reach, Vedial felt a strange alluring sensation, a sudden calmness filled him, but beyond it, he could feel a gaping emptiness of the abyss that threatened to swallow him.
"[Rejoice in the Peace of the Godmother - Extend! Psycho Palisade]!" The crimson orbs immediately vanished from sight, and a chain of magic circles lit up and circled Vedial as he erected a mental barrier to protect his mind from the creature's charm.
"What are you?!" Vedial grumbled toward the creature hiding in the darkness.
The two crimson orbs appeared once more and instantly moved to another dark corner of the chamber.
"I can feel a disgusting presence spewing from your very being mortal." A figure of a person appeared around the crimson orbs and began to slowly move toward Vedial.
The individual stepped into the light and a lean middle-aged mortal with hair descending to his back like a cloak, skin white as snow, long fingers with black fingernails protruding like metal rods, and dressed in ancient rags stood before Vedial.
"You fiend!" Vedial seemed to recognize the figure standing before him. "There shouldn't be any of you left alive."
"Oh, so you know of us." The individual's shriveled-up lips curled lightly as it spoke and its crimson orbs jutted forward.
Vedial jumped backward expecting the creature to launch a ranged attack, but the creature immediately lunged toward Vedial with its jaw wide open revealing jagged teeth like fangs.
"Your vitality is mine!"
'It's fast!'
The creature's hands clasp Vedial's sword hand before he can swing at it, without missing a beat Vedial quickly swung his free armored hand at the creature and landed a furious punch on the monstrous creature's face.
This allowed Vedial to get his sword hand free from the creature's wild grip, but before he could retract his arm the creature swung its jaw open and clamped down on Vedial's gauntlet.
'I was careless!'
Vedial tried to punch the creature again, but this time it grabbed his arm with its clawed hand and proceeded to apply pressure on the gauntlet in its mouth.
'My armor! It's cracking?! Any more pressure will mean-'
In that instance, the armor around Vedial's sword hand shattered and the creature's fangs dug deep.