After a quick chat, Ezekiel used a cleaning spell to help out the valkyries, since they were the only ones who were dirty before he said, “Double check the building and see if we missed anything. While my group is going to head downstairs and look for the vampire boss.”
“I would like to join if that's possible.” Sanhildr said.
Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “It will be a little cramped but be my guest.”
As the others went back upstairs to double check the building, Ezekiel and his group moved towards the stairs leading to the basement. Kaecilius took the lead as he erected a shield in front of himself as he headed down the stairs.
At first it seemed somewhat normal but after they reached the bottom of the stairs the temperature dropped slightly and the stairwell light seemed to be dimmer. As they looked at the door leading deeper into the basement Ezekiel glanced at Kaecilius as he asked, “Is this normal for a vampire lord?”
Kaecilius chuckled before he said, “No idea, I never finished the book on vampires. It was a little too boring of a read.”
Ezekiel looked at Mordo as he asked, “What about you?”
“No clue, my focus of study is on magic creation and demons.”
Ezekiel thought about calling Tao but he knew he would get an unwanted lecture or possibly extra training… Ezekiel wasn't stupid enough to do that, so he said, “Mordo give us some magic light and then we'll break down that door.”
After Mordo casted a perpetual light spell around the group, he conjured a magic sword and signaled he was ready. Ezekiel moved towards the door and placed some directional explosive tags with a time delay around it before he stepped back and said, “Cover your ears.”
A few seconds later an explosion rocked the room, with all of the force going into the doorway leading deeper into the basement. The doorway and wall surrounding it were completely gone and the only thing that could be seen beyond the now gaping hole was darkness.
Kaecilius started to advance first and as he passed through the hole, the room in front of him lit up slightly. It looked like a normal apartment building basement with one exception, a large hole rested in the middle of the room. As the group moved closer to the hole, the colder the temperature dropped.
Once they were by the edge of the hole, Ezekiel pulled out some glow sticks from his storage seal. After he activated them, he tossed them down the hole, only for them to disappear once they were out of range of Mordo's light spell.
Ezekiel shared a glance with the others before he asked, “What do you think?”
“I don't sense any magic. Maybe it's an innate ability of the vampire.” Mordo said.
Kaecilius nodded in agreement before he said, “It would explain the temperature difference as well.”
Ezekiel glanced down into the hole for a few moments before he said, “I'll construct a platform to take us down.”
As Ezekiel started to weave a spell together, Kaecilius decided to cast his own perpetual light spell, which helped to push back the darkness a little further. When Ezekiel finished his spell, a flat magical construct floated over the hole. He glanced at the others before he stepped on it and said, “Let's see just how deep this rabbit hole goes.”
As everyone else stepped onto the platform Blade asked, “Does he always quote movies?”
Kaecilius and Mordo both nodded as Sanhildr said, “I'm not sure. I haven't watched any Midgardian entertainment myself.”
As Ezekiel lowered the platform down into the darkness of the pit below them he looked at Sanhildr and asked, “Why not? You've been on Earth for over half a year. You should have watched something by now.”
“What do you mean she's been on Earth for half a year?” Blade asked as his right eyebrow raised.
“I told you she was the leader of the valkyries when I introduced you to each other. Plus she mentioned her weapon and killing gods…”
Blade frowned as he said, “I thought that was some kinda team name. As for the comment about her weapon and killing gods… I thought it was a joke.”
“Oh… I guess that kinda makes sense now that I think about it.” Ezekiel said as he nodded to himself.
Ezekiel pointed at Sanhildr as he said, “Blade, this is Sanhildr former Asgardian warrior and leader of the valkyries from Nordic folklore. All the legends you might have heard about them are based on her and the other valkyries.”
Blade looked unconvinced as he said, “That would make her over a thousand years old at least.”
“I am over seven thousand years old. Unless you count the time I was dead, which would make me closer to ten thousand.” Sanhildr said.
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Blade looked at everyone for a few moments and when he realized no one seemed to be joking he said to Ezekiel, “We’re going to need to talk after this.”
Ezekiel smirked as he said, “That's fine, but let's wait for Whistler to be better, since I don't wanna explain stuff twice.”
Ezekiel then glanced back at Sanhildr and said, “After we're finished here, I'm taking everyone to eat breakfast and then I am making you and all the other valkyries watch Yojimbo.”
A moment later the hole they were traveling down opened up into a larger area. They still had limited vision though since the two light spells only helped so much. As the spell construct touched the ground Ezekiel said in a joking tone of voice, “Lady and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I would like to…”
Mordo slapped Ezekiel in the back of the head before he said, “Tao said if you get too distracted, that hitting you should fix the problem.”
“Did it work?” Mordo asked as he smiled.
Ezekiel shot Mordo a glare as he said, “You and Tao need to loosen up.”
Blade slowly pulled out his sword as he said, “I don't wanna interrupt your moment, but we have company.”
Sanhildr, with her sword already drawn said, “I also sense something.”
Ezekiel and the rest of the group tensed up slightly as they looked around at the inky black void surrounding them. With the magic light which only covered about twenty feet around them, they couldn't even see the hole above them.
After almost a minute when nothing happened Ezekiel asked, “Are you sure something is…” At that moment a vampire jumped out of the darkness and slammed into the magic shield.
“I retract my earlier question.”
As the vampire clawed at the shield Ezekiel said, “You know, I kinda thought there would be more than one of them.”
As Ezekiel finished talking a whole swarm of vampires charged out of the darkness and slammed into the shield from all sides. While Kaecilius concentrated on adding more power to the shield Ezekiel slammed his right fist into his other hand as he said, “Found them!”
After Mordo created his own barrier to help Kaecilius. He glanced at Ezekiel and asked, “Can you take this more seriously?”
Blade nodded in agreement as he shot into the mass of vampires surrounding them, while Sanhildr used her sword from inside the safety of the barrier. Ezekiel started to slowly do hand signs as he asked, “Do either of the barriers protect against heat?”
“No.” Mordo and Kaecilius said at the same time.
“Then make one, it’s about to get a lot hotter.”
Mordo started to cast another spell as Ezekiel took a deep breath and raised his hands to his mouth. Right as a new barrier appeared around them Ezekiel said, “Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku!”
A torrent of fire quickly spread from Ezekiel’s mouth and engulfed the vampires in front of him, while it also lit up more of the place they were in. As Ezekiel sprayed fire over the vampires the others moved around with him so he could cover the whole area in fire. As he finished, the group could finally see that they were actually in a cave system. Ezekiel looked around at his work as he dusted his hands off before he looked at Mordo as he asked, “Happy?”
“No! You play around too much. I honestly have no idea why The Ancient One even wastes her time teaching you.” Mordo said as he frowned.
Ezekiel took a moment to study Mordo before he smirked and asked, “Is that jealousy I hear? If you like Tao so much, just ask her out.”
“I…”
Mordo turned directly towards Ezekiel with a glare before he said, “This is exactly what I am talking about! We are in a dangerous situation and you would rather act like a child then take it seriously!”
Mordo narrowed his eyes as he said, “Take this seriously or I’m leaving.”
Ezekiel wanted to argue back, but after seeing the others nodding in agreement with Mordo, he raised his arms in the air as he said, “Fine, I’ll be good.”
Instead of making sure the vampires were properly killed, the group moved past them and went deeper into the cave system. Before the darkness overtook them again, Mordo casted another light spell, but this one expanded out past the old ones. It helped them to see about fifty feet ahead of themselves as they headed deeper underground.
They ended up not running into anymore vampires along the way, but a couple times they ran into splits in the tunnel system. Instead of checking each one, Blade pointed them down a certain path. When asked why, he said he could smell a heavy scent of blood from that direction. The constant temperature drop as they went deeper also helped at first, but after a while the temperature stayed consistent and didn’t drop anymore.
After some time passed the cave tunnel opened up to a large chamber. The opposite end of which was filled with medical equipment and large test tubes that looked like the ones Theo’s team used for cloning bodies. Towards the left side were cages with a handful of people inside, while in front of the cages rested five tables. On each of the tables were corpses in different stages of being dissected.
The right side of the room looked like a study of some sort, with a large amount of bookcases that were behind a desk and chair. To the left side of that study area was a coffin and to the right of it was a pool of blood, carved out of the bedrock. After they looked around the room for a few moments Ezekiel asked, “Maybe the vampire lord is asleep in their coffin?”
“I rarely use my coffin down here.” A voice said from behind the bookcases.
Everyone tensed up as a blonde haired young man walked out from behind one of the bookcases with a book in his hands as he read from it. He moved to the desk before he placed a bookmark inside the book and set it down on the desk. When he looked up from the book his golden eyes took everyone in before he said, “Well this is a surprise.”
The man slowly walked around the desk as he said, “From the information I gathered, the daywalker should only have an oldman as his companion. A man named Whistler.”
The vampire stopped walking after he cleared the desk as he asked, “Which raises a question, who are these new friends you have, daywalker?”
Ezekiel smiled as he said, “It’s quite rude to ask for a person's name and not introduce yourself first.”
“Oh, my apologies. I am…”
Ezekiel cut the man off as he said, “I’m Ezekiel, seventy six years old. My zodiac sign is Cancer. My favorite food is pancakes. My hobbies are go-karts and programming.”
Ezekiel then quickly pointed at the others as he said with a smirk, “This is Kaecilius, the unhappy looking guy is Mordo, that is Sanhildr and of course you know the other unhappy looking guy as daywalker. We just call him Blade.”