Part E: The Countess
They hiked on through the Stony Field, battling against a variety of monsters with a depressingly single-minded purpose: Eat Adventurers. Eventually the level ground gave way to a steep wall of stone. There was no way past it, so the warriors turned and traveled along the foot of the rock wall, until they came to a hole that dropped away into the darkness.
"This must be the Underground Passage," Wufei observed, and Quatre shivered.
"More caves?" he muttered. "I hate caves."
"It'll be fine," Trowa said matter-of-factly. "These rock hills look stable. There's no danger of it collapsing, and we have plenty of light..."
"It's not that," Quatre whispered, wrapping his arms across his chest. "I just hate the feeling of being underground. It brings back... old memories..."
"This is the only way to the Dark Wood," Heero said in a tone that brooked no argument. "We cannot scale these cliffs, so the underground passage is the only way." With that, he started down into the tunnel, leaving the others no real choice but to follow.
There were more monster lurking in the caves, but they were of little threat to the party. Still, the labyrinthian passage seemed to stretch on and on endlessly, and before they reached the other side, the party was forced to call a halt and rest. Wufei looked like he could have continued, and Heero looked like he still might, but the other three and Relena were all out of breath.
Duo looked around speculatively. "This reminds me of the place I studied," he spoke up suddenly. "Almost the entire school was underground, because the books were old and fragile. They couldn't be exposed to sunlight, or water, or great heat. So all the libraries were underground. They were nice."
"It's one thing to shelter books from the elements," Trowa said as he got his wind back. "But human beings need a touch of sunlight, a taste of air and wind."
"There wasn't always time," Duo said more quietly. "Some of the students tried to get out a little every day. I did. But the more advanced students, and the masters... they were so deeply involved in their studies, and their experiments, and after long enough some of them couldn't go out in the sunlight."
He heard a low growl from Heero's direction, and withdrew suddenly into himself. "Nobody's asking you to go visit them, Yuy," he said, annoyed.
"As soon as this threat is taken care of," Heero growled, "I might visit this school anyway. You speak of foul, unnatural knowledge, and it can only come to evil."
Duo shivered theatrically. "If you tried anything so stupid as actually attacking one of the old masters, I shudder to think of where your body parts would end up," he prophesied.
A stony silence fell, and Quatre stood, sighing. "Let's go," he commanded, then said under his breath "...before they start arguing again..." Nobody spoke for the rest of the underground journey, all of them impatient to reach the surface again. Finally they burst out above ground, into trees so thick that you could hardly see more than a few feet in any direction.
Bowstrings twanged, and arrows suddenly knifed out of the trees to strafe the warriors. They cried out, more in surprise than from any real injury, but couldn't see their attackers to retaliate. Relena started firing back immediately, but there was no indication that she was hitting anything. Much to Duo's consternation, his undead minions scattered and began disappearing into the trees in all directions, each one apparently heading for a different target. Before anyone could stop him, he ran into the trees in pursuit, and Trowa was already starting off after one of his ravens. For a moment, they all hovered in confusion, and then an enormous shambling brute broke into them from the side, and they scattered in all directions. It didn't take long before each of the warriors was completely isolated from the others.
Duo slowed to a stop, glancing nervously around. He could here the shouts and sounds of a battle, from not far away, the clang of steel and the explosion of magic, but he couldn't see a damn thing. None of his summoned creatures were anywhere to be found, either, and for the first time in a while Duo found himself totally alone. "Uh... guys?" he called out, hoping for a response. "Quatre? Trowa? Uh... Relena?"
There was nothing, and, beginning to panic, he began calling the words of the ancient tongue that should have summoned all his monsters to his side. There was a rustling sound in the bush, and Duo started forward.
He nearly ran smack into a demoness, who seemed for a moment as surprised to see him as vice-verse -- but only for a moment, and then she attacked with murderous fury. Another one appeared out of nowhere, and another, and Duo found himself being backed up steadily against a tree as half a dozen came at him at once. Overwhelmed, he beat steadily against one of them until it died, and then, panicked, he cast the most dangerous spell in his repertoire.
The corpse of the fallen demoness exploded violently, sending a spray of gore and bone slivers everywhere. The other monsters were mowed down flat by it, but the force of the explosion dazed Duo, too. He stumbled backwards until he hit a tree, and then leaned against it, looking around for more enemies.
Something dark moved at the corner of his vision, and he whirled, prepared to send a spear of bone through it, only to stumble back as Wufei separated from the shadows.
"Wufei!" he squeaked, never happier to see the man. "Uh... hi!"
"You've gotten yourself lost, I see," the assassin remarked dryly. Duo flushed, and Wufei smirked. "No matter. The trees thin out a little further on. I expect the others will head that way, as anyone with sense would."
"I was heading that way!" Duo protested. "...until I got attacked." He and Wufei threaded through the trees without further incident, and, as promised, the vegetation did clear up soon enough. A few minutes of searching and calling located Trowa, who was more used to woods and hadn't lost his way at all, Quatre and Relena, and finally Heero.
"Look..." Quatre said softly, pointing. Centering the clearing was an enormous, ancient tree, bare of leaves but quivering with some internal energy. "That has to be the Tree of Inifuss."
"Great!" Duo enthused. "We found the Tree... now where's the scroll?"
A long, frozen pause revealed that nobody knew. Duo sweatdropped. "Uhh... Akara did tell us, right?"
"She said to go to the Tree and retrieve the scroll," Wufei supplied. "...She didn't specify how."
Duo walked up to the tree and titled his head back, squinting up into the branches. "Soo... do scrolls grow on trees?" he said inanely.
"As a matter of fact, they do," said Trowa. Stepping forward, he took hold of what appeared to be a shred of bark and peeled a large piece of the bark from the Tree. It flopped to the ground and curled up. Trowa retrieved the scroll, and unrolled it to reveal the runes that covered it as everybody crowded around.
"How did you know, Trowa?" Duo asked, amazed.
Trowa regarded him with his one visible eye. "The trees talk to me," he said in a toneless voice.
"Oh, okay." Duo nodded, then did a double take. "Wait a minute. Really?"
Although they had the Scroll, none of the party members were particularly eager to go back through the Underground Passage -- at least, not right away. They fought their way onwards, through the monsters under the trees, until they reached the Black Marsh. Before long they saw the crumbling, forgotten remains of some great edifice of stone looming over the dark water. Quatre whispered, "Is that...?"
Trowa nodded. "The Forgotten Tower. Where the Countess was buried alive."
"Well, time's wasting! Let's go!" Duo forged ahead of the others, his newly resummoned undead creatures following in his wake. In addition to the axe-wielding skeletons they were familiar with, he seemed to have picked up the skeleton of some kind of magic-user, with orange light that dripped from its bony hands. The golem lumbered along behind, its earthen face seeming to exhibit some kind of patience for its exuberant master.
More cautiously, the others entered the crumbling stone structure; it was a small, bare room with no features except for a ladder leading downwards. They descended, only to find another, identical room beneath it, and still no sign of Duo. Quatre swallowed hard as they continued down the ladder, realizing how uncomfortably far below ground they were going. He felt something warm nudge against his hand, and looked down to see Trowa's summoned wolf staying close by his side. Somehow, its presence comforted him, and he squared his shoulders and stepped onto the ladder.
They caught up with Duo on the level beneath, moving cautiously through the so-far empty hallways. There could be no question about presence, though; torches burned unnaturally, without any sign of having been lit or ever going out. But despite a thorough exploration of the floor, they encountered no monsters at all.
"I thought we were promised uncounted wealth?" Duo complained.
"There are more levels, Duo," Trowa pointed out. They found another staircase leading down yet further into the ruins beneath the Tower.
On the second level, they began encountering monsters; mostly skeletons and other zombies drifting the hallways, although they did root out a few nests of the omnipresent little demons -- light brown, this time. Their numbers began increasing as they went down to the third level, and on the fourth they began seeing strange shimmery-like creatures that seemed to wrap around a human and drain out that person's energy. Wufei's claws slashed through them without effect, as did Heero's scepter, but fortunately they seemed to be vulnerable to fire, and Quatre and Trowa made short work of them.
"How many levels are there in this place?" Quatre wondered as they found yet another staircase. As soon as they descended into the fifth level, though, they noticed the change. Unlike the previous four floors, which had all been identical in layout, this one was different. Sharp corners hid the rest of the level from immediate view, and the narrow passages quickly gave way to a large, open hallway lined with torches. It was empty, but at the end of the hallway was a long-legged basin filled with what appeared to be blood.
Quatre, remembering the line about "the rejuvenating blood of a hundred virgins," gagged and turned away, and Heero looked grim. Duo, though, leaned over the basin with an expression of interest. "Amazing," he murmured. "There are no living people around for miles. How does she keep it fresh? Getting hold of fresh blood for spells is almost impossible in the academy..."
Trowa saw Heero's face darken with rage, and quickly grabbed hold of Duo's braid, dragging him back from the grisly container. "Ow, hey!" Duo yelped, hands flying up to his abused scalp. "I was just looking! Geez, if the Countess kept her life force stored in that stuff or something, then we could get rid of her right now without having to fight her!"
"Too late," Quatre called nervously. There was movement in the shadows, and then the party found themselves rushed by dozens of monsters. They were zombie-like, but had none of a zombie's sluggishness in their movements; they were deadly fast and agile. Behind them, a woman with skin the color of a drowned corpse stood over an intricately gilded chest, with a viciously spiked club in her hand. "Here for plunder?" she smirked, and her voice grated on everyone's ears. "My halls are lined with bones of treasure-finders!"
"We're not here for treasure, demoness!" Heero shouted back. "We're here to put a stop to your evil!"
The countess said nothing else as she waded into the fray. The warriors fought fiercely, Wufei and Heero with their weapons, Quatre with his magic, and Duo and Trowa using some of each. One of the Dark Lancers went after Relena, who kept trying to retreat far enough to use her bow, so the two of them ended up chasing each other around the hallway.
Heero broke through the monsters and went to confront the Countess. Unexpectedly, Duo appeared behind her and attacked with his magic, forcing splinters and shards of bone from the fallen to fly into the Countess's back with great force. Then Heero began battering at her, and soon enough Wufei broke away from his foes to attack her, and fireballs slammed into her from Quatre's direction as the ravens scratched at her face. Beset from all sides, she staggered, and gave a hideous shriek as she seemed to dissolve into a blood-red cloud of energy. The seething cloud rose to the ceiling for a moment, then scattered throughout the room, and as it did so the lock on the chest burst open and gold poured out in a seemingly endless fountain.
"Wow." Quatre's eyes got very big as the glittering mess spilled over the floor. "Uncounted wealth was right." Sorcery must have been involved; there was definitely more than could have fit into that one small chest.
Duo made a motion over the Countess's body, and it burst into fragments which quickly dissolved. "Now there's no way she can come back from the dead again," he said with some satisfaction. "I only wish there were some way we could undo the terrible deeds she did in her life."
Heero, breathing heavily, narrowed his eyes to glare at the Necromancer. "I'd think that someone like you would approve of what she did in her life," he said bitingly.
That was the last straw. Duo's eyes flashed with rage, and before Heero could react Duo grabbed him by the shoulders and slammed him against the wall. "Let's get one thing straight right now," he snarled. "I am not evil. I am on your side. Just because I can raise the dead does not mean I am in league with Diablo! Did your precious mentor teach you anything in the years you spent in study?" "My mentor was killed by mages like you!" Heero roared, shoving Duo away from him. "He died fighting off a horde of returned undead -- Necromancer's handiwork!"
Duo ground his teeth in fury. "Necromancers aren't stupid enough to -- look, Blood Raven raised the dead! Those demon shamans raise the dead all the time! It could have been anyone!" he shouted. "I'm fighting to help the people who are being hurt by Diablo. I'm sorry for your loss, but I can't let your grudges get in the way of that. If we don't work together to fight the Lords of Darkness, then more innocent people are going to die!"
Still seething, he stepped back out of Heero's space, then whirled and stalked away, ignoring the hushed voices of the others behind his back.
To Be Continued... *insert demonic laughter here*