Passing by the markets, we scooped up and stocked back up on some personal items, I bought 100 thousand steel balls, 300 thousand balloons and 1000 Megaliters of crude oil which was expected to drain 70% of the town's unrefined oil reserves.
100,000 empty barrels, 10,000 iron chains and 1000 kilograms of fine rice flour, all orders placed with the town's finest traders to be stored in the large warehouse on the docks for collection after 4 days.
Placing a 20% deposit of 30,000 gold with the traders before I sent them off on their job.
Traversing further up west, there were significantly lesser homes built near the area, understandably no homes should be built too near a cemetery.
Arriving in the heart of the Necropolis, a large building mostly walls created to house shelves of urns for the Athenian families to rest their deceased after cremation.
Sagi and I looked around warily. The silence was deafening, barely even the sounds of wind, just stale air in a building full of ashes in urns demarcated by Athenian family names.
Going around the massive building, a small house made of stone was in sight. Its chimney smoking, present with a sign of life.
"Perhaps Venus is there holed up in that small stone house." Sagi agreed with a nod as we precariously made our way towards the house, softening each footstep.
Opening the door softly, it created a loud old creak, having already lost the element of surprise, we decided to be bold instead. "Excuse me? is there someone named Venus the life giver? We're sent by your friends Eri the eyesore and Elaine the windbreaker...
No answer just the sounds of boiling water in a pot with occasional stirring... creeping in we see the back of a lady dressed in adventure gear, slender with pale skin and blonde hair. She stirs the pot of boiling water lazily, fidgeting every once in a while.
Sagi relieved to see another person in this eerie place, placed a hand on her shoulder, "Hi Miss! I'm SaGHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Yuujiro!! Help!!" The woman had caught her hand by the wrist with cold boney fingers a strong vice grip despite her size and had turned her entire rotting head 180 degrees to stare at us with blank eye sockets.
My instant reflex kicked in, "retrieve Draconic twin fangs!" in a connecting motion, I gripped the blades materializing in the air with a reverse knife grip with the edges facing out.
The draconic poison fang in my left hand deftly slashing and severing the undead's wrist removing its hold on Sagi.
Followed by a reverse blade thrust using the Draconic Acid blade in my right hand, placing my left hand over the back of the right blade pushing my entire body weight into the nape of her neck.
This staggered the undead lady and forced her to be pushed back and pinned against the wall of the stove, knocking over the boiling water and burning her with the open flame.
A sudden shriek from behind startled us, "STOP! That's my mother!" Pushing past Sagi and pulling at my forearm to let her go.
"This is an undead! She'll kill all of us if I free her, you need to stay back."
Pleading with tears and snot, "No she's like this because of me please stop! Like a flip of the switch the undead collapsed lifelessly..."
Feeling the resistance of a struggle no longer present I removed the draconic blade from her neck and helped to pat and extinguish the flames.
Sniveling she asked, "Who are you two and why are you even here?"
"We're sorry we had to attack her, we were caught off guard by her death grip and missing eyeballs and feared the worst, an attack by an undead."
Laughing to herself, "Mother always was good at catching me when I did a sneak attack and at hide and seek."
Morbidly laughing to match her to make her feel better, "Ha ha... anyway Miss we're looking for Venus the life giver... she was a member of a party called the Sugoi Squad..."
"My name is Virgo Astraea..."
"Do you mean this?" as she dug into her shirt and removed a necklace with the coin old and off color brandishing the old emblem, before gesturing to the undead lady.
"This is who you're looking for, Venus the life giver is my mother Venus Astraea, during her life she was a powerful healer, ex-adventurer and ex-acolyte of the Goddess Athena...Unfortunately, she died from natural causes 2 years back."
"She was always knee deep in research on how to improve the powers of healing, refining her sigil to the pinnacle of ancient class almost breaking through into legendary class."
"After she passed, I was alone, and as such I studied her work and materials learning about healing magic day and night in hopes to be able to practice healing magic like her and possibly reach legendary class and attain the skill - resurrection..."
"After some time, I realized that I was in fact not gifted in the art of healing, the more I studied and practiced the worse it got, absolutely zero affinity for holy or healing magic."
"My bloodline is a distant relative of the Sirens of Atlantis; hence I have minimal features such as these silver scales around my eyes. This also means, like my mother we sing or use voice magic as Sirens."
"My mother Venus used to sing the most beautiful ballads, instantly healing her party in a pinch."
"But when I sing... the dead all around me come back to life... those bodies which were buried long ago, before Athens practiced cremation still linger till this day."
"You can imagine my horror when a horde of undead showed up crowding my house after singing, but in that horror a silver lining... my mother had been brought back to life as well like a miracle..."
"I knew her soul was long gone including the semblance of her once beautiful body, now slender closer to a pile of bones."
"In her journal entries, I subsequently found out my that my mother had rejected the wisdom of the Goddess Athena and began practicing in Idolatry worshiping a goddess Hecate a Goddess of the underworld."
"My guess is that Athena took it personally and cursed me her daughter...or perhaps it was Hecate herself who blessed me..."
In my mind secretly I asked, "Goddess Athena is this true?"
...."Yes, Venus grew mad with her obsession in attaining powers over life and death, my knowledge provided to her was that she had to drink the lifeblood of her daughter in order for demi humans like her to attain legend class sigil magic."
"The solution was the knowledge, but not the wisdom bestowed... my hopes were that she realized this search was a fruitless ambition and that she should release her obsession."
"However, the obsession consumed her and in turn she disgracefully turned to a Goddess of the underworld for answers... so I 'blessed' their daughter to control life and death as she wanted..."
Stumped at her words, "Right...blessed..."
"Personally, I see no difference they are both sides of the same coin, whether I cursed her, and Hecate blessed her, or that I blessed her, and Hecate cursed her... the end result is the same..."
Pondering her words... "Yes, there is truth in what you say..."
Sagi after hearing Virgo's plight felt empathetic and gave her a warm hug, "Virgo I know you're alone and scared, but would you consider coming with Yuujiro and I, Sagi of Troy."
"I'm confident we can support each other and help you find a way forward as a singing necromancer and you can sooth and heal the hearts of the dead!"
"You know just like in the stories, your mother like mine must have told you of their adventure's countless of times. So, there must be a reason, for us to be brought together like this, perhaps it is fated for us to continue the adventures and legacy of the Sugoi Squad."
Virgo wipes away her tears giggling, "Are you sure? Virgo the life giver is not exactly what others might expect..."
Stepping in confidently, "Alright Virgo let's find out exactly how capable we are and then you can decide for yourself."
Smiling in the face of a challenge, "Hmph alright... there is another graveyard for monsters about half a day's hike away only able to reach by foot due to the area, surrounded by crystalline trees, attacking anything in the air above it."
"But let's leave that for tomorrow... for tonight before I demonstrate the fearsome power of my idol necromancy, I want to show you the kindness of it..."
Her cursed ancient sigil, gently glowing like a choker around her neck as she serenaded~
Her voice soothing and gentle to the ears just like a pop star idol.
Venus' body takes life and begins cleaning up, preparing our beds and dinner while we helped out as well.
That night we felt the warmth of familial love and the sorrow of being powerless to bring our loved ones back. With Virgo's affection for her mother felt and somehow her mother's love for her as well, the kindness of necromancy had allowed Virgo to live her life with her loved ones for one more day.