Luna stands frozen at the front door, fear gripping her as the thought races through her mind: W-what the hell is down there!? She frantically tries to piece it together, her imagination running wild. Is it a horrific swamp monster? She quickly dismisses the idea. No, that's stupid. A swamp monster would be in a swamp! Then she thinks, What if it's a werewolf chained up so it wouldn't hurt anyone? Or a demon wanting my soul?! Panic wells up in her, thoughts spiraling out of control until she blurts out loud, "I know—I'll get Sunny!"
She takes off running through the house, calling out, "SUNNY, THERE'S SOMETHING IN—!" before colliding into Sunny at full speed. A loud BANG echoes through the house as they crash into each other.
Sunny groans as she steadies herself. "Jeez, partner, we're gonna have to put some speed limit signs in here, huh?"
Luna scrambles to her feet, flustered. "S-Sunny, y-you were right! There's a monster d-down there, and it wants to be let out!" She stammers, looking around nervously.
Sunny sighs, placing her hands on her hips. "Calm down, partner. Besides, I told you earlier there was something in the basement, didn't I?"
"I thought you were joking!" Luna responds with a sheepish grin.
Sunny raises an eyebrow. "I see. Well, yes, there's an actual monster down there. But I can't gauge its strength until I see it."
Luna stiffens at the thought. "Oh, so we'll have to open that door... great," she mutters, visibly tense as she grabs her arm in apprehension.
Sunny places a reassuring hand on Luna's shoulder. "It's okay, partner. I'm here. How about this—I'll go in first, and you follow behind, alright?"
Luna straightens up slightly, managing a small smile. "Alright, sounds great."
The two make their way to the basement door. Sunny strides with grandiose confidence, while Luna shuffles along, looking terrified. As they reach the heavily locked door, Sunny surprises Luna by knocking on it.
"Howdy! Hope you don't mind the company!"
A few seconds of silence follow before an angry roar shakes the house.
"LET! ME! OUT!" the creature bellows, filling Luna with the same overwhelming dread as before. Sunny, however, remains unfazed and begins unlocking the numerous locks.
With each lock undone and falling to the floor, Luna shivers. One after the next, until finally, the door creaks open. Sunny unsheathes her sword and pulls out a Colt Python revolver with a 6-inch barrel. She quickly checks the cylinder, ensuring each bullet is loaded. The barrel of the revolver bears glowing, engraved symbols, as does the short sword, though its engravings emit a golden glow.
Sunny holds the revolver in one hand and the blade in the other as she cautiously descends the stairs, Luna trailing hesitantly behind. As they descend, Sunny conjures a glowing ball of light that illuminates the stairwell. The light floods the basement, and Luna rubs her eyes before finally seeing the bottom.
Sunny reaches the basement floor with Luna lagging behind. The sound of rattling chains echoes throughout the room. Luna hurries down, her heart pounding, and sees Sunny standing over something.
A corpse.
The figure is humanoid, but plants and vines grow out of its body, distorting its features. It looks like a zombie, but it groans and roars, "LET! ME! OUT!"
The corpse is chained to the wall however their are engravings on the chains with papers that resembles talismans, with crosses stabbed into the body.
To Luna's surprise, the corpse's mouth doesn't move. Vines and plants spill from it, seemingly the source of the voice.
Sunny sighs, lowering her weapons slightly. "I see... so that's what we're dealing with." Sunny cracks her necks the sound of the bone popping is loud "Alright partner that thing is both a corpse flower and an echo plant." Followed by a long pause "And a Tomb Flower."
"An echo plant just repeats the last thing it heard, and when it grows inside a person, it echoes their final words. That said..." Sunny glances at the corpse, her brow furrowing. "This voice—it almost sounds like a werewolf. Maybe they de-transformed after they died. It's possible, but it's strange. Most werewolves stay transformed even after death." She turns to Luna with a questioning look. "Well, what do you think?"
Luna blinks slowly, tilting her head. "What's a tomb plant and a corpse flower?"
Sunny chuckles softly. "Corpse flowers are native to the Americas, and tomb flowers are from Asia. Corpse flowers embed themselves into corpses and use them as soil. They eventually grow into the brain and spread throughout the body, turning the corpse into something like a zombie."
Luna's head snaps toward the corpse, her expression wide with surprise. "Oh, so like Night of the Living Dead?"
Sunny laughs. "Close enough. Tomb flowers, though—they're a bit scarier. They're far more hostile and aggressive. The strange part is they require extreme heat, like desert-level temperatures, to grow."
She gestures to the corpse. "See those flowers sprouting from the eyes and mouth? Those are corpse flowers. Now look at the vines and stems protruding from the chest and stomach—they resemble bones, right? That's a tomb flower."
Sunny points to the vibrant plants covering the body. "Those multicolored flowers, vines, and even bushes? Those are echo plants. They come in all forms—flowers, leaves, and in rare cases, even trees."
Luna tilts her head, processing the information. "Wait a second. If tomb flowers need intense heat, then the corpse must've been fresh when they started growing, right? And the echo plant—it glows. Does that mean it generates heat? Could that heat have been enough for the tomb flowers to grow? But…" She trails off, frowning. "Something doesn't add up. This corpse is practically skin and bones. How did all this foliage even thrive in a basement?"
Luna snaps her fingers. "And another thing—you said werewolf. Aren't werewolves only killable by silver? So does that mean there's something about werewolves we don't know? Or does it have something to do with those talismans—or maybe the chains are silver?" She gestures toward the body.
Sunny nods thoughtfully. "Good points. And the crosses embedded in the body? They're part of the trap. Maybe Father Frederick set it up—or Saint Solair, perhaps. But why would they come all the way out here?"
Sunny sits down, her expression pensive. "There's a lot to unravel here."
"Wait, who's Father Frederick or Saint Solair?" Luna tilts her head toward Sunny.
"They're both 5-star hunters!" Sunny nods, snapping her fingers as she explains. "The organization that gives hunters their licenses is called Sanctum. Hunters are rated on a scale from 1 to 5 stars. Only the best of the best get the 5-star rating. Off the top of my head, I think there are maybe thirty to thirty-five 5-star hunters out of one hundred thousand—possibly up to one hundred fifty thousand hunters total."
Sunny glances at Luna and grins. "Be a doll and cover your ears."
Without wasting any time, Luna quickly covers her ears. She watches as Sunny points her revolver at the corpse and fires six deafening shots. Each shot reverberates through the room, the sound so intense that Luna can feel the vibrations despite her hands covering her ears. Surprisingly, it doesn't hurt as much as she expected.
Little does Luna know, she's instinctively coated her ears in her mana to protect them from damage.
After the sixth shot, smoke rises from the barrel of the gun. Sunny lowers the weapon and looks at Luna with a satisfied smile. "Alright, partner. You did great—you just coated your ears in mana!"
Luna blinks at her, surprised. "I-I did?" She tilts her head in confusion. "Huh, maybe that's why it wasn't so bad?"
The corpse begins to moan and groan, its movements growing more violent as it tries to break free from its restraints. The chains respond, tightening and moving rapidly, ripping the body apart at an alarming rate. Suddenly, the crosses embedded in the corpse sprout blades from their lower ends, which extend briefly before fading away entirely.
Sunny walks over to the corpse and swings her short sword, severing its head in a single, clean motion. "Well, that takes care of that. Sorry for not letting you do anything, partner, but I need to teach you how to fight!" Sunny laughs, but her amusement is short-lived as something wraps around her leg. "Oh, that's not good!" she exclaims before being flung against the wall.
The corpse, believed to be dead, jolts awake. Its body begins to grow larger and more muscular, with thick vines sprouting from its headless neck. It stumbles and shambles before wildly whipping its vines around the room like deadly tendrils.
Luna braces herself for the onslaught, but several of the vines strike her, the pain sharp and intense. One vine wraps around her arm and slams her onto the floor.
"Ah, fuck!" Luna cries out in pain. She thrusts her hand forward, reciting an incantation. "Light Force!" she shouts, forming a glowing orb of light and hurling it at the monster. The attack lands squarely on the creature's chest, sending it back a few feet. However, the attack quickly fizzles out.
"Uhhh…" Luna mutters in disarray, only to hear Sunny shout, "Partner! Tomb flowers are resistant to light-based attacks—they'll just absorb it!"
"Oh, you have got to be kidding—" Luna is cut off as a vine smacks her, sending her flying in Sunny's direction. Luna sees her partner tangled up and pinned against the wall. "How are you stuck!?" Luna yells, panic creeping into her voice as she tries to think of a plan.
Sunny, remarkably calm, responds, "Oh, that's simple, partner. I'm allowing it to happen. Alright, distract it for me—" but she's abruptly cut off as the monster slams her into the floor multiple times. "Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch," Sunny says in a monotone voice, feigning pain.
Luna stares in confusion at Sunny's half-hearted acting until the plant monster smacks her with another vine. Luna quickly notices the monster readying to strike again, but this time, she instinctively blocks it with her mana. "H-Hey! I-I did it again!" she exclaims. Her moment of triumph is short-lived, as the monster wraps a vine around her leg and slams her onto the floor again.
As she lies there, she feels the relentless strikes of the vines. Each attack hurts more than the last, an agonizing experience. Just as she feels the monster attempting to stab her through the chest, she doesn't feel the expected pain. Instead, it feels as though her chest unraveled—like thread being pulled loose from a seam.
Luna looks down in shock and sees swirling threads of string where her chest should be. "W-What the fuck!?" she exclaims. Then, a memory surfaces—something she read about willpower techniques. "W-Wait, is this my will technique? Strings? Threads?"
Luna feels her arm unraveling, allowing her to sneak her hand through the monster's vines. She wraps her threads around the vines sprouting from the creature's neck and applies enough pressure to sever them. The monster stumbles, thrashing and wailing in agony.
Sunny seizes the moment, her short sword now engulfed in flames. She charges at the creature, slicing it in two. The flames consume the monster as it collapses, burning it to ash. Luna, still in shock, focuses on her newfound power. "Holy heck, w-what just happened!?" she shouts.
Sunny grins and gives her a triumphant thumbs-up. "Great stuff out there, partner! That was some sick willpower! I'm a little shocked you got it so soon, but hey, it just shows how awesome you are!"
"Y-Yeah, so… um, the basement plant monster is dead, right? It's not going to get back up, is it?" Luna asks, her body slowly returning to normal.
Sunny shakes her head confidently. "Nah, it shouldn't. The best way to deal with plants is with fire, and I made sure to target the tomb flower. I figured it was embedded in the stomach where I slashed it."
Luna lets out a relieved sigh. "Well, I'm pretty sure it's dead. I only see bones now. That fire must've been intense!" She starts making her way up the stairs, feeling a mixture of excitement and terror for what might come next.