Symphonic Odyssey
: Vol. Three: Dark Sarcophagus: Verse One-Hundred and Forty-Seven

The two traveled deeper into Finn’s Deep, killing a few more undead along the way. The members of Zealot’s Ring had simply managed to chain up the ones in here. However, it was clear that it hadn’t been an easy endeavor. Several half-eaten corpses littered the floor and the bodies were only a few days old in some cases.

They soon arrived at a stone door after passing several rooms like this. “Shit, what now? Do we knock, or should we bust right in and say hello?” asked Alex. Cypher thought for a moment and then smiled at his companion.

“Well, we knew this wouldn’t be easy right? Might as well make it interesting. Honestly, I was starting to get a little bored with all the easy slaughter. Besides, someone has to avenge those who were laid to rest here, right? Might as well be us! Let’s make sure they give us a warm welcome, shall we?” replied Cypher. The two then exchanged a smile and stepped back a bit.

Alex charged up a massive fireball spell and sent it flying forwards. The door crumbled instantly as the magick exploded against it, and several chunks of the door shot inwards and clattered loudly against the stone tiles, along with the rattling sound of chains.

The two moved in perfect unison through the opening and into the room. However, there was no one inside, at least, no one human. Awaiting them was a massive undead creature with sickly purple skin. It was bound by chains, or at least it had been until the explosion.

Now those same chains only hung from its rotting limbs. It was large, covered in patches of maggots, vaguely human-shaped, and was constantly leaking a pus-like substance tinged yellowish brown. As far as one could tell, it was an undead ogre, and that made it much more dangerous than the simple zombies and skeletons they had faced so far.

The pus-covered ogre turned a rotting eye toward them and gurgled a cry before charging at them with thunderous steps. It swung the flailing chains at them as it moved and pus leaked off of it onto the floor below.

They both jumped sideways away from the entrance, and it crashed into the stonework. They each began launching low-powered spells at it, which cleaved away more and more of its flesh. They could have just unloaded their most powerful spells on it, but they needed to know just how powerful this thing was. It appeared to be in the second rank, but given its decomposition, that could put it a little higher.

If they made the mistake of using their strongest attacks right out of the gate and it was somehow immune to them or could withstand that kind of damage, then they would be in even more danger. Obviously one should never reveal their trump card right away.

Generally speaking, aside from simple human corpses that had been reanimated, the more decomposed an undead was the more negative energy it possessed. If an undead had more negative energy, then it was obvious that they would be more powerful. Of course, despite thousands of years of research, a lot was still unknown about them.

The Rot Ogre was determined to kill these two humans that had appeared before it, however, it was somewhat slow, and Cypher and Alex had much more firepower compared to it. Alex launched another barrage of fireballs, which exploded against its purplish flesh, followed by a stream of flames that engulfed the entire body of the creature. Cypher shot bolts of bright lightning at its head and even took out one of its eyes in the process.

The attacks were doing decent damage, and this ogre wasn’t showing signs of regenerating as living members of its race would have. Perhaps it was the fact that it was undead, or it could have been any number of other answers, but whatever the case was, it didn’t matter. They were winning and now was no time to stop.

The two continued to lob powerful spells at it, and swiftly attack its body with their weapons and before long, it was lying in a heap on the floor. Its body quickly vanished as the last of its negative energy faded away. All in all, they had only used around 20% of their maximum Zight reserves.

The battle had gone exceedingly well given the size of it. However, it was strange that such a beast was kept here. Chains or not, members of Zealot’s Ring no doubt needed to pass through this room to get to the surface.

“This is very strange,” began Cypher. Alex nodded and sighed before kicking a loose stone across the floor of the room.

You’re right, something is wrong here. Why were they keeping this thing here? Beyond that where did it even come from? I seriously doubt the people who built this place entombed an Ogre’s Corpse. They were obviously hoping that undead wouldn’t spawn here. Putting a dead anything that massive would have easily prompted the accumulation of negative energy wouldn’t it?” Alex responded.

“Indeed,” began Cypher. “Clearly this was meant as a distraction or deterrent to any intruders like ourselves. My guess is that they were using it to buy some time for something. But what I wonder. I doubt they planned specifically for us, after all, they are warring with the other criminal organizations around this area. This was probably meant for them.”

The two continued to speculate about what something like this could mean. However, they decided to press on. If this was meant as a distraction, it was working and they needed to get further inside. They opened a massive door on the other side of the room and walked down a short corridor.

It seemed like sounds weren’t able to carry in this place, and even their footsteps were silent. They opened another door and walked through, however, before they could even react, they were restrained by two berserkers.

These berserkers were much weaker than the one they had fought outside, and if they wanted to they could easily break free from their grasp. However, with a quick glance at each other, they silently decided to play along.

The two struggled against their captors as they were dragged inside the room. Before them sat a rectangular table, and around it, sat thirteen men and women. All of them appeared to only be enhanced humans, however, there were a few Wild Conductors standing next to a few of the chairs.

“Welcome to our humble hideaway,” began the man sitting at the head of the table. His arms were spread out in an exaggerated welcome, and he smiled at Cypher and Alex with malice in his eyes. “We weren’t expecting guests to make it this far, but since you’re here, you might as well be witnesses to our grand discovery.”

Cypher and Alex were flung into wooden chairs at the opposite end of the table, the two berserkers holding their shoulders tightly. The man stood up and began speaking again, “I am Armond, leader of Zealot’s Ring, and you two shall be our guests of honor!”