Published at 22nd of October 2023 9:42 am

Book 3: Chapter 7

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

When Viper and the other two arrived at the location where they were to meet Cynen, she was already there. The Grave Walker gang leader had brought two of her own men, both awakened and carrying the dream flowers that Garrett had planted. Not wanting to catch her off guard, Viper walked loudly, scuffing his feet against the floor as they got close. The two assassins with him still moved silently, but they were at least visible, and as the three masked men rounded the corner, Cynen caught sight of them, her eyes narrowing.

"Stand and identify yourselves," she barked, causing Viper to stop.

"Viper of the Klein family," he replied.

"So you're the ones we'll be exploring the tunnels with," she said, eyeing Viper closely.

A faint shudder ran through her body as she realized that she couldn't probe the masked man's strength. This was the third Shaper level awakened from the Klein family that she had run across, a fact that made her glad she had decided to join forces. It was rare for a gang to have even one Shaper, so to find a gang that had three was unheard of, especially a small unknown gang that had sprung up out of nowhere. She was starting to believe that there was more to their abrupt appearance in the city than met the eye. Not wanting to be impolite, she nodded and examined the two masked men behind Viper. Since Viper hadn't introduced them, she didn't ask anything further, and instead gestured to the two men with her.

"Core and Gallant, two of my trusted lieutenants, and some of the best crypt walkers around. Anything I don't know, they do. Furthermore, Gallant here has been into the deep tunnels."

"The deep tunnels?" Viper asked. "What are those?"

Cynen gestured to Gallant, who stepped forward, smoothing his mustache nervously as he spoke.

"The deep tunnels are under the crypts. When the royal family first built the crypts, they built them over a layer of tunnels that already existed. Most of those deep tunnels are not used anymore, but they're still there. That's where the big monsters come from. There are flayers and soul stealers down there. Nightmarish monsters that'll eat you alive if you're not careful. That's also where the first tomb is."

Seeing Viper cock his head to the side, Gallant grimaced and looked at Cynen.

"The first tomb is a legend," Cynen explained. "It's said that the first king who arrived here in Insomnium is buried there."

"That's what we're looking for," Viper replied. "Can you lead us there?"

"I can try," Gallant said, though he was clearly unwilling. "It's a dangerous trek, and it'll take at least a couple of days."

"That's fine," Viper said. "Let's get what supplies we need and then go. That's where we're going to find the core of the Dark Hand."

Looking like she regretted ever having agreed to lead the Klein family down into the crypts, Cynen nodded.

"Fine, give us a couple hours to get ready and we can go."

While he waited for the team in the sewers to begin their journey, Garrett continued to work in his office, speaking to Pax about strengthening the patrols and coordinating with Delver's butchers to make sure that the Grave Walkers mostly stayed in their own territory. The agreement between the Klein family and the Grave Walkers was largely in name only, but not all of the Grave Walker foot soldiers knew that, and if possible, Garrett wanted to avoid any sort of unpleasant situation.

Eventually, Cynen and her two lieutenants were ready to go, and they rejoined Viper, leading the way deeper into the crypts. The area under the Grave Walker's control was better lit and more clearly laid out as this was the beginning of the royal crypts, where royalty and noblemen throughout the ages had been laid to rest. Watching through Viper's eyes, Garrett didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but he also hadn't expected to see anything so close to the Grave Walker's main base of operation. Though they had been infiltrated by the necromancer's curse, on the surface at least, the Grave Walker gang was still committed to fighting the undead and rooting out necromancy wherever it was found. Curious about how the gang had gotten started, he had Viper strike up a conversation with Cynen.

"Tell me, was the founder of your gang actually an exorcist?"

Glancing over at Viper, Cynen shook her head.

"No, I'm not sure where you've heard that, either. He was just an adventurer. The Grave Walkers actually formed before the exorcists came to be. In those days, it wasn't uncommon to see undead wandering around the graveyard. Whatever protections the royals had put in place initially had worn away, and it was increasingly common to see both undead and necromancers prowling among the stones. Our founder was an adventurer who specialized in hunting the undead. He never said why, at least as far as our records can tell, but he was quite committed to the cause. And he wasn't the only one, there were quite a few people who made a tidy living clearing the undead so they didn't bother the city.

“After the big event where the undead boiled up out of the catacombs and nearly overran the district, the nobles suddenly saw the need for his services, and so wanted him to start a guild, specifically an undead hunting guild. Instead, he pledged himself to keep the graveyard clear so long as the royals gave him property, a base in the graveyard to operate out of, and some funding. Unfortunately, he was mortally wounded a few years later, killed by a ghoul's bite down in the tunnels. Our next leader was a little bit more enterprising, and after the funding provided by the royal family vanished, we turned our hands to other things, though we still take very seriously our charge to keep the city clear.”

"So what happened with the group you hired to kill our boss?" Viper asked, peering at her from the slits of his mask. “Given everything you said, it seems a bit strange that you'd hire a necromancer.”

It was hard to see Cynen's grimace in the dim light of the torches that she and her men carried, but it was there nonetheless.

"I know it's hard to believe, but I really did think they were just assassins. I had no idea there was a necromancer.”

“And the mirror?" Viper asked.

This time Cynen shrugged.

"Honestly, no idea. They were more than a bit secretive, which, at the time, I thought was a good thing. Seems like it was more to dupe me than anything else. The spot where I contacted them has been empty ever since they failed, and they haven't reached out again. You might not believe me, but I’ve been hunting them ever since I found out they used undead."

Nodding, Viper changed the subject.

"It’s water under the bridge, and since you joined the family, I mean, since we joined you, there are no hard feelings. On the plus side, you hiring them revealed their presence to us, and now we can put them out of their misery once and for all.”

“You think we'll find their headquarters in the deep tunnels?" Cynen asked.

"I do. The first tomb is likely to be their home, because they worship a being they say is buried there."

Viper's words caught Cynen off guard, and she turned to look at him, nearly bumping into Gale who had stopped in front of her. Rather than ask the question burning on her lips, she remained silent as Gale listened carefully. After a moment, he pointed to the tunnel ahead.

"I'm getting a strange feeling, almost as if this area is trapped," he said.

They were already getting close to the edge of the Grave Walker's territory, and had come up to a small passage that sloped downward. The torchlight failed to pierce the deep gloom that filled it, and the air was growing thicker and wetter. Considering it for a moment, Cynen looked at Gale.

"What do you recommend?"

Her lieutenant was uncomfortable, but still gestured to the cavernous mouth of the tunnel, and spoke as calmly as he was able.

"Someone needs to go explore it. That's the only way we'll be able to tell if it's safe for all of us."

Immediately, one of the red-masked assassins stepped forward.

"I can go," he said, his voice a gruff whisper.

About to protest, about to tell him it wasn't necessary, Cynen saw Viper nod, and the assassin rapidly vanished into the darkness.

"My men are good at operating in this environment," Viper said, causing Cynen to smirk.

"That's fine. But don't go blaming his death on me if he gets caught by something," she replied.

"You were saying something, though, about the necromancer, the Dark Hand, worshiping someone in the first tomb? I've always heard that the first tomb held the founder of Insomnium."

Shaking his head, Viper shrugged. "I don't think anyone actually knows, but what we do know is that the Dark Hand believes someone named Lesrak is buried there, and that this Lesrak will rise to sweep away the city in a storm of undead. That's why they call the zombie invasion, the undead invasion, the March of Lesrak. But as long as we find them, we should be able to shut them down."

A dozen minutes passed in silence before the red-masked assassin came back. In his hands, he carried a small dart that would have been invisible in the darkness.

"It was trapped," he said, nodding to Gale. "And the arrow was poisoned.”

“Let's be careful as we descend," Viper said.

It was clear that Gale was nervous to proceed out front, so one of the red-masked assassins took point, with everyone else trailing behind. As they continued on their journey into the earth, they moved in silence. Another two hours of walking through the dark, winding tunnels brought them even further into the earth, to places that weren't on any map. The entire time, Garrett watched from the inn above, peering through Viper's eyes and listening to his ears. A few times, they ran across traps, cleverly hidden, and designed to kill or maim anybody passing through the passage. But the assassins were masters of this craft, and were able to disarm the traps without issue.

Surprisingly, the further, the deeper they went, the more signs of people and creatures they found. The crypt had been made from hewn stones that formed square passages, and alcoves where bodies could be interred. The further down they went, however, the rougher the construction appeared to be, almost as if a new, more advanced crypt had been built on top of whatever had been before. The ground began to grow rough underfoot, and the stone took on a less polished appearance. They also began to find evidence of people passing by, and occasionally, the odd box with rotted supplies. When they ran across the third such box, Cynen shook her head.

"I didn't want to believe it," she said, "but I think somebody might actually be living down there."

They were standing in a small chamber, with a few passages that led off to the right and to the left, as well as a passage that led further down into the earth with a flight of stairs. Examining the rotten supplies, Viper suddenly sensed something, and raised his head. It wasn't a noise that he'd heard but rather, it was the absence of a sound. It was the sound of someone, or more likely something, intentionally trying not to make any noise. With a quick hand motion, he ordered the two assassins to either side of the leftmost passage, while gesturing for Cynen and her two lieutenants to stay back. They were smarter than to speak for fear that they might alert the coming threat that they were aware of its existence. Instead, they drew back to the far wall in silence.

For a moment, it appeared as if Viper was the only one in the small room, until a skeletal-looking creature with four legs, a pair of scythed arms, and a sharp beak stuck its head out of the passage he was facing. Garrett, looking through Viper's eyes, had no idea what it was he was facing, but he knew it was bad news and commanded Viper to attack. The creature, thinking it was going to catch Viper by surprise, was stunned when a silver blade abruptly raced towards it, Viper launching his attack at point-blank range. With a screech that shattered the stillness, it tried to dive to the side, but Viper's longsword pierced through the side of its neck, cutting in between two pieces of the hard shell that covered it. Though he didn't manage to take its head off in a single strike, the creature was clearly wounded.

Unfortunately, there were three more right behind it, who stormed out of the passageway, throwing themselves towards Viper and forcing him to dance backwards. They lunged forward, their beaks snapping and their scythed arms tearing at him, but he moved with inhuman speed, dancing between their attacks as he retreated. Cynen, on the other side of the room, let out a shout of her own, summoning the pale green flame she was known for, and unleashing a blast that rolled through the air, sending thick black smoke up toward the ceiling as it roasted one of the creatures alive. Their faces pale, Gale and Gallant both threw themselves forward as well, lifting their weapons as they rushed to engage the other two creatures.

The wounded monster was struggling to its feet when four long daggers stabbed through its hard outer carapace, tearing its body apart with precision strikes. Yet it was a hardy creature, and the assassin's attacks didn't manage to bring it down fully. It wasn't until Viper lunged forward again, his silver blade finding the opening he had previously created, and finishing the job by removing the monster's head from its shoulders, that it finally fell still.

Cynen was continuing to unleash a great gout of flame against one of the monsters, causing it to wail and thrash as its body burned, and in her other hand she held her wide-bladed broadsword, hacking through another of the creature's thick armor with heavy blows. Gale and Gallant, who both held swords of their own, were doing their best to fend off the final monster, and were soon joined by the red-masked assassins, who were able to coordinate with them to tie the creature down, eventually killing it. After kicking the head of the monster he had decapitated aside, Viper jumped in to help Cynen dispatch one of the two creatures she was fighting, and after a frenzied few minutes, the room they were in fell silent once again. Spitting on the ground, Cynen shook her head.

"This is why I hate coming down here," she said.

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