Before they exited the cavern, Mark took a final look at the statue.

Can I take it with me? The thought had run through his mind a few times, but he hadn't had the chance to experiment with his teammates staying around. He would return later in the future.

---

After a long journey, Mark's party had finally arrived in the area where Theodore met his defeat. "This is her sanctum," Elise mumbled as they walked inside the massive cavern. The flora here was verdant, but not oppressively so like the previous series of caverns he had met Samara in. Soft grass and smooth vines blanketed the floor like feathers. Their steps were silent while they moved.

Samara scouted the area quickly before telling them that most of the undead had disappeared. Only a few scattered skeletons remained in this grassy terrain. However, deeper inside the cavern, there were still several areas containing large numbers of undead where she couldn't easily travel through. Three tunnels opened up like maws in front.

"So what do we do?" Elise asked. "We're here. She's probably here too. Do we go in and fight her, or do we avoid this place?"

Samara's eyes flashed. "We attack, of course. She's not getting away with what she's done."

Mark was inclined to agree. "Did you find anything out of place? Like a hiding spot," he asked Samara. But she hadn't any luck.

"Anything like that will be deeper inside, where the undead grow in numbers. But Elise, do you remember anything specific about this place?"

Elise stared at her surroundings, trying to concentrate, and eventually nodded. "This should be the beginning of the cavern, where we were ambushed," she said. "But there was no undead when I woke up. She should've killed them all and left these behind as distractions."

"Where's the inner sanctum you mentioned?"

"Other than the time when we were ambushed, I didn't get to see much of this place. Just the core. We had other tunnels to exit from - one way only," she said. "Sorry. I'll know once we enter."

Mark looked at Samara. "It'll be easy for her to escape then," he said. "We need to shut that down."

"Don't worry. I can run pretty fast if necessary. Any more information, Elise?"

She shook her head. "She was very secretive. She wanted us to report directly to her, and didn't let us speak to each other often."

"Where are they now though?" Mark did think it was weird how they had never met another one of the Mage-Thief's group again afterwards. Surely Samara would've discovered them if they were present?

"I have no idea. I was sent away with Hannah to try and find Theodore. Never expected to run into you."

"It sounds like there should be more people," he said. "Samara, why don't you know anything? Didn't you work together?"

She shrugged. "Always kept to myself. Guess she hated that," she said with a low voice. "It is suspicious, but we must continue. Expect an ambush."

A lingering thought hung at the edge of Mark's mind. Did she kill them all already? Then he shook his head and refocused his attention on the problem at hand. With Elise's light beams and his orc mage's skill in magic, it wouldn't be a problem to clear out these undead swarms.

"We can blow through those undead with ease," Mark said. "Do you prefer stealth or speed?"

"Speed," Samara said. "If she's in there, she might leave to do something else. If she's not, then going faster would be better anyway."

Elise nodded her head. "Let's get this over with."

The three of them decided on the middle tunnel. It was the largest and contained the greatest number of undead. But none of them stood a chance against Mark's orc mage, whose bladestaff cloaked in arcane energy cleaved through their ranks like wheat before a scythe. Whenever it was surrounded, great blasts of fire erupted from its body, burning everything around it and spreading to more.

Elise and Samara honed their offense on undead leaders once they were exposed. With great precision, they vanquished their soul fires and left the bodies behind for Mark. Though these minions were weak, he appreciated it.

As the leaders fell, the orc mage only seemed to grow stronger. Its magical armor prevented it from taking any damage from regular weapons, letting Mark preserve his own mana. Although it lacked long-ranged spells, the three spells it kept provided a good foundation for a powerful melee fighter.

When the battle died down, Mark ordered his skeleton mage to try and kill the remaining undead. He had his orc lop off their limbs and let the skeleton borrow his mace in hopes of helping it gain experience. Afterwards, he identified it, and grinned. Throughout the past few battles, it had grown from Level 20 to 23. Its leveling rate was much slower than the rest of them, but Revenant Soul would pay itself back soon.

"It's a nice set-up to delay attackers," Mark said. "Though it does make me a bit scared. That's a lot of experience left on the table for her people."

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"Maybe they couldn't deal with them that easily," Elise said. "If I had to personally kill all the undead, I'd be out of mana within one or two fights. How's your orc mage though?"

"It's doing fine. Its weapon buffing spell lasts for a while and takes only one cast to do all this damage," he said.

Another fork appeared, one on the right and one on the left. They went through the left. It was a purely random choice, but fortunately, the tunnel was not a dead end. Inside was a smaller clearing with some items scattered on the floor, including a bag.

"This is one of the camps," Elise said with furrowed brows. "A resting place for somebody I once saw. Where are they?" She rummaged through the bag.

Samara took a look and determined the next place to go. Another tunnel buried in the wall required great strength to dig through, but his orc mage did so quickly and silently. While Samara continued to scout, Elise did her investigations.

"Weird," she said. "They left important things behind."

"What is it?" Mark stooped down as well to look inside the backpack. There was a bottle of wine and some herbal medicine, along with a well-hidden dagger dripping with poison. It was clear these were special goods kept by them to use for later.

"Maybe they fled this place in a hurry," Elise said. "Couldn't take the bag with them while they were doing something else."

"Perhaps."

Samara returned and told them about an emerging network of tunnels and caverns. According to her senses, there were plenty of small rooms, but they were all blocked off by mounds of dirt. And perhaps some illusions too.

"Should we go and open them up?" Elise asked.

"Wouldn't hurt." Mark ordered his minions to accompany his orc mage as they dug up a few openings. Samara could see where the most foot traffic was, and they uncovered three caverns of medium sizes.

"This looks like an outer area still," Elise said. "Look. It's where they ate food." In this cavern, there were piles of stacked dirt and stones which resembled seats and tables. Broken wooden pieces were strewn on the floor, and a few contained rotten pieces of leftover meals.

Samara was peering intensely at the ground. "Lots of marks left behind," she said. "There were many, many people here."

Other than the makeshift mess hall, Mark's minions had uncovered two caverns which seemed like barracks. Alongside scraps of cloth which resembled blankets, many bags were left on the floor. Their contents were meager, but some of them contained things they considered important. Like extra weapons, for example, or even different clothes. Random miscellaneous items were also left behind.

"So they did all leave," Elise said. "But why? They had such a good base of operations."

Samara shrugged. "They don't matter. Let's keep going."

The next cavern contained another mass of undead, but the numbers had dwindled. Instead, leaders seemed more prevalent. Still, they were just as easy to fight since none of these undead had passed Level 25.

Deeper into the tunnel, Mark reached down and scooped up a pile of soil. "Rich soil," he muttered, prompting Samara to look back at him.

"You know about the soil?" she asked.

"Yeah. Always wanted to learn farming," he said. "Maybe once we get out of here I'll be able to try my hand at it."

She smiled. "I can teach you some things about growing plants," she said. "But yeah, this place became a little weird." Elise had her arms crossed, shivering. She had been fine until she stepped into this cavern. "Still not recognizable?" Samara asked her.

"No," Elise replied with chattering teeth. "Uh, I probably left from the other direction. Guess we need to go even deeper."

After clearing out another cavern with scarcer amounts of undead, they finally reached the inner sanctum that Elise mentioned. More blocked out caverns were scattered around the place, which Mark began to send teams to dig out.

"Should be good loot here," Elise teased. "Go get 'em!"

Mark stared at her with a deadpan expression. Her smile disappeared and she went off to huddle in a corner.

The sooner they left his place the better. A dreadful silence hung all around them, and the chilly air deepened the longer he spent inside the inner sanctum. Samara had begun pacing around, instead of watching his minions like a hawk. She seemed on edge.

Elise somehow fared better, though. Other than the initial cold, her expression remained the same. "It's freezing, but that's all I feel," she said. "Must be my light magic."

Mark looked towards his undead. They also didn't seem to be affected by the feeling in the environment. Whatever it was, it only targeted the living, and seemed to have less of an effect on light mages.

"Probably necromancy," he said with a shiver. "I hope."

"Where could it be coming from?" Elise asked. "Another hidden tunnel?"

Mark nodded. "She may have set a trap for us here. Like boiling frogs or something. I'll need your help to figure this out. Find it."

Samara tried to examine the area closely. But the incessant trembling was starting to get on her nerves, and she lacked the ability to focus for longer periods of time. "This is not good," she said. Her teeth were starting to chatter as well. "I can't find anything."

"It's probably hidden by her illusions," Elise said. "I'll help." Light flowed from her hands and into both their bodies, staving off the dread chill for as long as she still had mana. But this was just a temporary solution.

As more time passed without any discoveries, they grew more flustered. Even Elise was starting to be affected by their symptoms. The chill had begun to seep into their bones, making them move sluggishly. Samara tried to continue onwards into the tunnel, but the cold somehow intensified. Moving backwards did the same.

Mark closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on the situation instead of his condition. His heart skipped a beat. There wasn't much time left. He chanced a glance at his skeleton mage and saw it sitting in a corner, facing the wall.

A brief thought flickered in his mind and he directed his minions to rush to its location. They started digging as quickly as they could. In moments, a hidden opening revealed itself.

"There it is," he said through his teeth. His teammates couldn't hear or see him, too focused on warming up, but his undead certainly could. They rushed over and jostled against Elise and Samara.

"What is it?" Elise mumbled. Samara was slow on the uptake, but she stumbled over as well.

Mark simply pointed at the wall. Instead of dispelling the illusion, which would cost mana, he walked through solid stone. They followed him out a second later.

The dread chill remained, but a path to salvation had finally appeared. Their eyes stopped immediately on the gruesome sight in front of them. Three dead bodies hung from the ceiling, skin marred with esoteric symbols.

Elise gasped, recognition in her eyes.