The sun was starting to set by the time the three made their way out of the crypts and into the fresher air of the graveyard. Though a lingering mustiness remained on the air, it was better than the mildew and bone dust scent of the crypts that was now cloyingly stuck to Mau and her party.

"We don't have a lot of time. Let's get Andy back to the temple and figure out what to do from there." Mau muttered as they made their way to the cemetery gates. The guards were waiting for them.

"... Took your sweet time gravetending." One said.

The other casually drew his blade.

"We think you might have saw something you shouldn't." He said, waving the sword at Mau and Andy. "Demi-humans can be awfully nosy, you know. With their sense of smell and all."

Mau held up her hands and deftly stood herself in front of Suvdaa before the raider could snap back a reply.

"Gentlemen! We're done, really you don't need to pull your sword like that, it's kind of scary." She said, feigning fear.

In reality she was posed to strike, in the even the cult bastards did anything stupid.

"We're going to have to detain the three of you." The other guard chimed in, tapping the mace in his grip to the palm of his free hand in a menacing attempt at intimidation.

It wasn't working on Mau, Suvdaa simply grumbled behind her, and Andy whined as he took a tentative step back.

"Sir... I can tell you, taking us in would be a big mistake." Mau said firmly as the two approached.

"That so? Then maybe we'll just have to kill the three of you before you can tell a soul about your little trip into the crypts." The guard leered through the slit in his helmet. "Been a while since I got to have some fun anyway."

"Ah." Mau sighed as she rubbed at the back of her neck.

"Suvdaa, Andy, I think I'm going to have to kill these guys." Mau said.

"Damn." Suvdaa said, dry and uncaring.

"Wait what?" Andy blurted.

In an instant the guards stormed towards Mau, blade and mace in hand, they raised their weapons to strike...

There was a flash of movement in the next second, the orange light of the setting sun reflecting on the long sword in Mau's hands as she drew the blade and removed the first guard's hands from his arms in a single fluid motion. Before the second guard could even make a cry of surprise or alarm she batted his mace aside and stepped into his defensive space.

Mau's dagger twirled in her free hand, dancing in her fingers as she drew it from the sheathe under her arm and embedded it in a slot in the man's armor.

A single twist of the knife and he crumpled as she spun to finish off the first guard who was still staring in shock at where his arms used to be. She neatly removed his head from his shoulders with one clean and efficient cut.

Andy looked horrified, green, and ready to throw up all at once. Suvdaa patted him lightly on the head to ease his rapidly fraying nerves.

Mau sheathed her weapon and retrieved her dagger from the guard's corpse, wiping it on the dead man's cloak before re-sheathing it.

"Andy. Go to the temple. Tell someone you trust about everything we saw. If they can spare any Temple Knights to keep an eye on the cemetery in case zombies happen to get out tonight, well... That'd be great." Mau said, resting her hand gently on the dogboy's shoulder.

Andy nodded numbly, still shaken by the violence he had just witnessed while Suvdaa calmly started dragging the bodies and their various parts out of sight.

"I... I want to help." The acolyte said. "I'll do everything I can."

"We'll be back here tonight at midnight." Mau said with a nod. "If I know anything about how necromancers work, he'll have to wait until three in the morning to cast any powerful spells. So we have some time to rescue everyone down there."

Andy shuddered but nodded and started rushing for the gates of the nearby temple of Light across the way.

"And what about us? What are we going to do?" Suvdaa asked very pointedly.

"We're going to report this to the Guild. Even if they don't do anything about it, at least other adventurers might gear up for a zombie outbreak if we fuck up." Mau answered, already turning to leave the graveyard and start rushing half way across town all over again.

❧

It was midnight by the time Mau and Suvdaa returned to the cemetery gates. True to his word, Andy was there waiting for them.

What Mau had seriously not expected was the contingent of Church Knights that were waiting with him.

"... Well this is a surprise." Mau said as she came to a halt by the acolyte.

Andy smiled sheepishly at her. It was clear he was trembling from both fear and anticipation of what was to come, but he still managed to flash a big old grin anyway.

"I told the archbishop first thing I could." he said. "While the knights can't go in with us, they can have a nice stroll and patrol by the cemetery gates. On the off chance anything comes out, well. They'll handle it."

Mau nodded. It was better than what the Guild was able to do for her.

'This is a very serious accusation against a member of the city's governing body. Without proof we cannot post any official guild jobs relevant to the matter.' The guild clerk had told her, cut and dry. But Mau was glad for the shifty eyed look that the clerk had given her a beat after.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

'But if this rumor were to spread and other adventurers decided to look into it.... Well. If anyone were to bring in zombie parts, the guild will offer double the usual reward for undead extermination and an official guild notice will be made.'

It was better than having no support at all, and Mau was actually fairly heartened to see the figures of several other adventurers around the street, eyeing the cemetery gates. Though Mau also knew that she and Suvdaa were going to have to go into those crypts alone at the end of the night to rescue the girl and the other kidnapees.

"Alright. Suvdaa and I are going in. If we're not out by three in the morning, or you start seeing zombies, it means we fucked up. At the first sign of undead please try to get more temple knights on scene, because this guy wants to release a horde and it's going to be bad." Mau said.

Andy shook his head.

"I'm going in with you, too." He said. It was a statement that made Mau blink.

"... Serious?" She asked. "You sure? It's not going to be a walk in the park, you know. A lot of guys are gonna die. It's not going to be pretty."

The acolyte's eyes were as hard as steel as he nodded back to her.

"I can't let anything happen to all those people. And you're going to need all the help you can get down there." He said.

"What a good boy." Suvdaa said, reaching over to start giving Andy's blonde hair a good tousle and ruffle. He immediately started wagging. Mau felt that irritated pang again in her chest for some reason, and cleared her throat.

Suvdaa stopped ruffling Andy.

Andy stopped wagging.

"Right." Andy said with a small and disappointed huff. "We should get going."

"Just stay behind me." Suvdaa said as Mau grumbled and started leading the way down the quiet graveyard path to the mausoleum they had found before. There was just one issue.

The crypt's heavy stone doors were sealed shut by the time they had found it again.

"That is a problem." Andy said with a whine.

"So how do we get in again?" Suvdaa asked impatient. "Do we find another crypt or?"

Mau paid them both no mind as she drew her sword. However, instead of taking ahold of the hilt, she gripped the sword by the blade, her glove and gauntlet did an adequate job of keeping the edge from biting into her hand as she rolled her shoulder once... She raised her blade- and struck the door with absolutely overwhelming force with the blunt part of the crossguard and pommel like a hammer.

"Gaia Hammer!" Mau declared, tapping into the magic both within her body and the ambient mana within the earth to strengthen her muscles, blade, and the force of her blow all at once.

The mausoleum door exploded inwards, disintegrated into small chunks of stone and plaster from the sheer amount of force put into the singular strike.

"Door's open." Mau pointed out blandly. "Let's move."

"Where the hell did you learn that...?" Suvdaa asked.

"That was..." Andy started to speak but trailed off.

"I said door's open, let's go." Mau nudged them very pointedly as she started down the stairs into the gloom of the catacombs once again.

"They're probably expecting us after earlier." Mau said. "Light a torch, I'd rather have you two ready than have to rely on my warnings going in."

"Oh! I've got it!" Andy said, picking up a chunk of broken door and murmured a prayer to Galatea.

Mau made a face. But when the rock suddenly came to life with a bright white glow and Andy held it aloft like a torch, she nodded.

"That good?" He asked, bright and excited.

"Yeah." Mau replied.

Suvdaa snuck another ruffle on the dogboy's hair and they proceeded down the musty old crypt halls once again, following the same trail from before, but with much more haste. They were on a timer now, and Mau didn't want to waste time creeping down the corridors when someone likely found the guard's bodies from before and had a chance to warn Thanatos and his men that they had been found out.

By the time Mau and her team reached the large chamber with the vaulted ceilings everything was disturbingly quiet. Thanatos stood alone on the raised platform in the center of the room, his back to the entrance, muttering under his breath. He was likely reciting the words of a dark spell, as the room hummed with power. Just stepping beyond the threshold of the door made the hair on the back of Mau's neck stand on end from the sudden chill as she recognized the telltale signs of a necromancer at work.

Andy snuffed out the light and Mau and Suvdaa crept forward, remaining just out of the dim light of the torches that bathed the room in their flickering light.

Mau made a hand gesture at Suvdaa in the gloom, her blue eyes gleaming in the darkness as she made several signs that the raider understood.

One target.

No wind.

Aim for the kill.

Suvdaa drew her bow and knocked an arrow into place, the barbed head of the war arrow glinted gently in the fire light as the recurved weapon creaked quietly in her hand, the bowstring whispered a soft groan as Suvdaa drew it taut and lowered into a kneel to steady her aim. Mau gave her the final hand sign.

Release.

The soft twang of the bowstring snapping back into place made Mau's ears twitch. The arrow sailed silently through the air, barely making so much as a soft whistle as it cut through the still air of the crypt. Mau watched intently as it made its way to its target, unerring and true, and time seemed to slow to a crawl as she held her breath.

With a soft thump, The hooded figure's body crumpled to his knees; the arrow had cleanly found its way into his neck, puncturing vital veins, arteries, and windpipe as it pierced through to the other side, stopping partly embedded in the necromancer's throat.

From his knees, the necromancer toppled to his side, twitching with the last vestiges of life as it left his body thanks to Suvdaa's impeccable aim.

"Nice shot." Mau commented quietly, but still frowned.

That was easy. That was a little too easy. Especially considering how the place should have been abuzz with cultists after finding their dead friends. It was a trap. That was bait.

But Mau had already known that.

"Is... Is he dead?" Andy whispered from where her was waiting in the entrance to the chamber.

"Pretty sure." Mau replied. "But that's just the start of our problems, here." She said with a frown.

The cages were too silent, and Mau rushed to the one by the door to check on the kitten she had found earlier. There was no sign of the girl. The cage was entirely empty, and Mau cursed under her breath while Suvdaa slowly moved to approach the body and check on her kill.

"Suvdaa." Mau said in a hiss before she said something in the language of the Mongara people.

"It's a trap."

Suvdaa nodded, understanding instantly and drew her knife as she continued to approach the body. Mau and Andy both waited with held breath as the raise girl flipped the corpse over to get a good look at the dead man's face.

"It's not Thanatos." Suvdaa called over her shoulder. Mau saw that coming a mile away, as the torches in the room flared even brighter in the next instant.

"No. It's not Thanatos." A familiar, hoarse and gurgling voice chuckled from the darkness. Several stone slabs in the chamber walls slid upwards, revealing several more entrances into the large room. And through those entrances poured men and women in dark armor as black as the night, weapons brandished and waiting to fall upon the trio of interlopers at their leader's command.

Thanatos, himself, was the last to enter the chamber, strolling at a leisurely pace into the crypt, skull-masked face grinning victoriously as he spread his arms.

"I had always known someone would come to stop me." He said, folding his hands behind his back. "My great master warned me of a hero. But I am fairly certain that hero is not some random catgirl." He chuckled, theatrically.

Internally, Mau couldn't stop laughing.

She wasn't just some random catgirl. It was her. It was always Mau who killed the Four Generals and their Demon Lord master. This time, apparently though, none of them would see her coming, with how busy they were expecting a basic fighter guy with a sword.

Suvdaa quickly backed up to stand at Mau's side, opting to sheathe her knife and draw her bow. Andy took place behind the pair, staff held in trembling hands. Mau slowly drew her longsword in one hand and her trusted short blade in the other.

"I see you have some fight in you." Thanatos said, on seeing that they hadn't yet fled. "You'll all make a fine addition to my undead army tonight." The necromancer gloated as his guards slowly approached.

Mau scoffed.

"You brought all these guys here to die, tonight, Thanatos." Mau replied. "But I'm only here to kill you."

"Bold words for a corpse." Thanatos replied.