"Beautiful… Oh my, it's the prettiest thing I've ever seen!" Cherry exclaimed in glee. "That's the sun, isn't it?" Tears were on her cheeks. "How could I ever take such a thing for granted? It's the most gorgeous thing in the whole universe! We're going to make it out alive, aren't we, Sir Mane? We're going to see the whole world again? I promise I'll never take it for granted… Never. Not anymore."
"I want to see trees again," Fer said, his eyes watering just like his friend's. "I want to see the sea too… where the cliffs of the Slash end… Where Emperor An cut us away from the mainland. I want to see it all."
Even Lucifan could say nothing to sully the experience, whilst Belle was choked up with emotion. Though she could speak no words, her face said it all. She had to take her glasses off to wipe her eyes, revealing a pretty face, she clutched her hands in front of her in prayer, the wide white sleeves of her priestesses' robes magnifying the trembling of her own body.
"You'll make it out. I'll make sure of it," Mane promised. "But I'm going to need your help," he put a massive hand on Fer's shoulder. "I'm going to need all your strength, from each of you. Do not yet be lulled in by the beauty, for there is still danger in the air."
"I'll… I'll do it!" Fer gasped, drawing his sword, fired up. "I'll become as strong as I need to! I won't be beaten again."
"Good lad," Mane praised. "You too, Lucifan. We're going to need the strength of the top student."
"…You will have it," Lucifan said quietly.
"I'll do everything I can too!" Cherry said loudly, hitting her chest with an impassioned fist, causing those massive breasts to tremble. Bell made some frantic gestures, and Cherry quickly translated for her. "Bell says she'll be doing all she can too. She's stored up a lot of mana over these past few days – she's ready to give it all she's got."
"Good," Mane nodded. "Then let us enter the den of the dragon."
He strode on ahead, the very image of a leader. Ermos was by the back, feeling slightly less cool. He tried to push his messy long hair back, to see if that would make him seem more respectable, but within seconds, he tired of it and messed it right back up to its previous state.
"So cool…" Fer murmured, watching Mane go. "Do you think that's what he said when he went to kill that dragon fledgeling?"
"You ruin everything with your stupidity," Lucifan spat in disgust. "Just keep up, dummy." He jumped down the first of many rocky ledges after Mane, disappearing before Fer could fire anything back.
There were several little rocky ledges that they had to scramble down before they reached the floor, some with a few blades of sickly grass and some yielding a gooey pink fungus that looked like the very image of disease. They made more than sure to avoid that.
When they reached the floor of uneven rock by the river, they revealed the first influence of man in that cavern. It was apparently a lone influence as well, and it could only be seen from their angle, not from the front.
There was a pocket of space behind the waterfall, a little cave of its own. And, in there sat a grand black marble coffin with legs of gold and many detailed carvings on its sides and lid. A film of moisture coated it, giving it a regal glow as it caught the light.
A single word was carved on a tablet in front of it. "KING," it read.
Before they could begin to muse quite what that meant for them, or whether they should go further, the lid of that coffin popped up, ever so slightly.
It must have weighed as much as a prize bull, but there it was, being lifted up from the inside with ease. Grinding against the side of the coffin, it was pushed free and allowed to fall to the floor with a slap, splitting itself into three fragments.
And there arose another skeleton, as old as the rest, with a crown of red gold banded around its head.
"The king of the Bishamons…" Pash breathed in awe. Mane looked to him as he spoke, before looking back at the arisen dead. The warrior had started to rely on Pash's information just as Ermos did.
For such a high-ranking man, he wasn't dressed as you would expect him to be. Unlike his men that they had put down earlier, he did not wear an undecayed armour. In fact, from his dress, he wore nearly nothing at all. Not even boots. But both of his hands were occupied. Two golden rings as big as plates, but likely a hundred times sharper.
He turned his ancient skull eerily to look at them with his hollow eyes. And then, it held up one of its weapons towards them in a threatening manner.
"Looks like he's picked us out," Mane said. "It's been some time since I've fought against a chakram wielder… This could prove troublesome."
The dead king dropped open its dead jaws and it sucked air into lungs that didn't exist, before bellowing a battle cry that rippled the air itself, louder even than the waterfall.
He leapt straight through the waterfall, vacating his little cave, before coming crashing down on the opposite side of the river to them, leaving a crater from the impact.
"Yup… He's definitely strong," Fer gulped, feigning bravery.
A chuckle resounded throughout the cavern, dark and demonic. Ermos didn't think it came from the king.
A moment later, a bolt of blue lightning flashed down from the sky striking the dead king head-on, coating him from head to toe. The king screamed in anger, holding its arms out wide in resistance, but the lightning continued to stream down, rooting him to the spot, imprisoning him and somehow not turning him to ash.
He dropped his chakrams down to the floor, unable to hold them any longer. His arms fell down by his side too and he was forced to take a knee and then he was forced to kneel, unable to do anything more.
With two knees upon the stone, a change began about him. The lightning changed from merely striking him to running entirely through him, shrouding his entire body, assuming his shape.
His bones appeared to grow thicker and more shapely, until it became clear that it was not his bones growing at all, but flesh. Sinew by sinew, tissue by tissue, tendon by tendon, meat was put on the dead king's bone. Rippling red muscles, tense and aggressive, then tanned caramel skin, then a mane of wild black hair upon a large square head.
He lifted his reformed face and looked at them keenly with angry blue eyes and thick lips twisted in a snarl.