Is Undeath Resonance truly the opposite of Bloom Resonance? Perhaps it is, the strange way their Resonance orbs repel each other has led many researchers to conclude such. I however am not so sure. Do not magnetic stones repel each other in much the same way? One would not call them natural opposites.

-"Field" Journal of Lady Clataire Asley

Chapter 54: A Brief Experiment

Alabaster

Having finished wrapping his light but basically unbreakable chain back around himself, Alley made the decision to detach his hook from the chain. Looking up at the mansion before him the dark-haired boy could easily imagine himself tripping over the chain while fighting a zombie or something in a cramped room or corridor in the building. The place might be a towering mansion of stone and wood but it looked to Alley like someone’s home. People’s homes had things like chairs, tables, beds, and knickknacks. All objects that could catch an errant chain at an inopportune moment and cause Alley all sorts of problems.

No longer breathing hard the pair of boys kept their guards up as they stalked up the wide staircase in between the stone columns that lead what could only be the main entrance.

It was a rotten double door that must have been quite the sight to behold in hay day. The remnants of fine carvings that Alley thought depicted a flourishing garden adorned the lower half of the old wood, and what was definitely a spread-winged owl at the top.

Darius narrowed his eyes and started playing with the little piercing in his ear as they approached the door.

“You think we need to be on the lookout for traps?” asked the redheaded boy.

“I don’t think so,” Alley replied with a shrug. “This place looks more like a big house than a fortress and who would put traps in a place they intend to live?”

Darius seemed unconvinced. “Maybe the same kind of person who has that thing just strolling around their lawn.” The hunter gestured at the remains of the bone golem as he spoke.

Alley grinned ruefully and had no choice but to concede the point.

It turned out the old double doors were not in fact trapped, but Alley didn’t regret the wasted minutes they spent checking it. The last time he had been in an ancient structure rage and grief had clouded his judgment and it had almost cost the boy everything. He was more than happy to take things slow and cautious, particularly as the sun would be setting soon.

While that wouldn’t bother Darius, Alley had no intention of pushing into the dark. Not when he could probably find a secure room and set up camp there till the morning…that was going to mean sleeping in watches.

‘Did I mess up?’ Alley mused to himself, it had seemed like such a grand idea to forge onwards and find this place on their first day out in the swamp. The implication that it would mean a wet uncomfortable night with zombies lumbering around in the dark only now occurred to him.

Past the double doors was an entrance hall that had probably once been well-lit and inviting. This was very much no longer the case. Lined up against each wall were large clay pots filled with earth. Whatever plant had once occupied them had been utterly subsumed by creeping vines that poured in from a shattered skylight above and covered basically everything from ceiling to floor. Alley thought he could make out a set of reclined chairs, but it could just as easily have been an unusual growth pattern among the strangling plants.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Rubbing his black eye, Alley let out a little sigh and started picking his way through the plants. There was more than enough room for the boys to advance side by side so they didn’t bother arguing over who went first this time. Both were however more than happy to voice other complaints as they approached an overgrown pair of smaller doorways and what looked like one of those raised cellar doors that opened diagonally downwards.

“I keep imagining these vines coming to life and strangling us.” Said Darius as he carefully picked his feet between the overgrown plant life.

“Oh I know, me too,” replied Alley with a grin. “Every step I take I think I'm seeing the damn things move.”

The door closest to Alley burst open in a manner that was absolutely not imaginary. The skeleton of a man surged out of wielding a pitchfork. While animated dead things were already strange enough, this one took oddity to a new level. Visible in its rib cage was a small glass case filled with dirt. From that dirt, a thorny rose plant had grown up through the skeleton to bloom a pair of flowers from its eye sockets. Like the skeleton, the plant inside it was long dead but refused to accept it. The flowers were wilted and stank of decay, yet they sent out puffs of visible pollen with each of the Undead monster’s movements.

If anything the vines across the ground were even more of an impediment for the monster than it was the pair of boys. The skeleton tried to come rushing towards Alley thrusting its rusted farm implement, but instead tripped and fell flat on its plant-covered head.

Alley and Darius shared a brief look of shock before diving on the prone creature. It tried to rise but before it could so much as orient itself the boys had hacked the skeleton and its rosebush passenger to pieces.

Naturally, the twisting Undeath Resonance began to reassemble the weird skeleton within minutes, just as it had every other monster they had encountered in the Rakino swamp. This time however Alley had almost an entire hour left to go before he could turn the skeleton into a Card.

“Look at this, “ Said Alley pointing at the process. “The Undeath Resonance is working on the plant too.”

“O…kay?” Replied Darius clearly not understanding or caring.

“Someone did this, it's like an experiment and I think it worked.”

“That’s great and all,” said the ever-practical hunter. “ But what are we going to do about the monster?”

Alley considered for a moment before using his hook to separate the skeleton’s foot from its leg. “I have something I want to try, give me a hand with this body.”

Taking care to avoid the weird rose, the pair of boys carried the main portion of the skeleton out across the wet lawn and tossed it down the stairs that led up from the hedge maze. They then hurried back inside to observe the separated foot.

Not long after they entered the room smaller bone fragments began to slide towards the manor’s entrance, dragged along by the shifting purple Resonance of Undeath.

The foot however was secured by Alley’s hook chain looped around a pillar at the center of the room the skeleton had originally come from. Initially, the hook had no issue holding the piece of bone it was crammed through, but soon the helixes of Resonance began to grow thicker and thicker. The pull on the chunk of undead growing greater and greater. In less than a minute the foot was floating in the air straining to fly towards its owner with impressive force.

While Alley had no concern the Resonance could overwhelm his father’s chain, made as it was from metal dug from the very center of the world after being tempered by thousands of years of Pressure and Earth Resonance. The same could not be said for Alley’s hook. It was made from regular old iron.

As if empowered by Alley’s worry the foot chose that very moment to break free, cracking the hook in half in the process. The thick lines of Resonance dragged the bone out the door with the speed of a bowstring snapping back into place.

“So what exactly were we trying to prove with that?” Asked Darius with a raised eyebrow. “The upper-stress limit of your hook?”

“Shut up.” Muttered Alley as his face went pink.