Talia clutched her ribs, trying to ignore the blood seeping between her fingers as her eyes darted around, obsessively scanning her surroundings. There were only a handful of them left – a couple of warriors whose names she’d never bothered to learn, Abdul, and herself. They were all injured to some degree or another, but Abdul was the worst off. Not only was he bleeding from a dozen wounds, but one of his hands was missing as well. He bore a jagged gash that ran diagonally across his face, and one of his feet looked like it was pointing the wrong way.

And those were just the visible injuries. Like everyone else, he bore psychological wounds as well. Ragged lacerations across his soul, fractures in his mind, and a constant, steady, and tormenting assault upon his psyche – how any of them found the will to go on was a mystery.

Beyond her half-dead companions, Talia studied her environment. They’d found a crypt which, ironically enough, had been abandoned. There, Abdul had empowered his consecration, which would hopefully serve to keep the undead out. It was a thin hope, though; the skill had already failed once, and Talia knew it was the height of idiocy to continue to rely on it. But what choice did they have?

Sighing, she pulled up her status, noting that the only good part of their circumstances was that she’d finally made some headway when she’d attained the Slayer of Undead achievement.

Name

Talia Nightingale

Class

n/a

Level

15

Race

Human (G)

Alignment

Isphodel

Achievements

Progenitor, Bane of Goblins I, Brink of Death, Slayer of Undead

Strength

46

Agility

69

Dexterity

44

Endurance

53

Vitality

23

Intelligence

84

Wisdom

84

Looking at her stats, Talia knew that her mother would be happy with her choices. After all, Lady Constance had always wanted her to be a dedicated healer, which meant that the bulk of her stats should be allocated into intelligence and wisdom. In the three levels she’d gotten since leaving Beacon, Talia had gotten forty-five free points, twenty of which had gone into wisdom, an equal number into intelligence, and five into endurance. It wasn’t how she had envisioned her development, but that had been the only way she could keep up with the demands of the mission. She had yet to choose her latest skill, mostly because she’d only gotten level fifteen during their flight.

The mission, she thought, shaking her head.

Everything had gone steadily more and more wrong as the party went north. They’d started fighting simple zombies, but the closer they came to their destination, the more powerful the undead horde became. Reapers, wraiths, and flesh golems had soon taken over from the zombies, and that wasn’t even considering the horrors they had encountered once they’d finally reached the Micayne estate. She shuddered at the memory of the revenant they had encountered and only barely escaped.

The thing had looked mostly human, but it was the parts that weren’t that made all the difference. Those lifeless eyes, those claws, the alabaster skin marbled with green veins…

Talia pushed the nightmare from her mind. It wouldn’t do to dwell on such things. Instead, she focused on her [Meditation]. She was the only healer left, and it was her duty to see them through. The moment she felt that she had enough mana available, she pulsed [Circle of Mending], and when she opened her eyes she saw that Abdul’s and the others’ wounds had healed a little. But the injuries fought against her skill. [Circle of Mending] was an extremely powerful skill, but its strengths lay in the fact that it was deployed in an area of effect. Still, even though it wasn’t quite as strong as an individual heal, it should have been enough to take care of her party’s injuries.

“It’s the revenant,” came Abdul’s gravelly voice. Despite his obvious weakness, his voice was unaffected. Instead, it was strong and commanding. Talia could only hope that she could one day measure up to someone like him.

“What?” she asked, panicking. “It’s here?”

“No,” was his response. “But you were wondering why your skill wasn’t more effective, weren’t you?”

“Y-yes,” she admitted, the stammered word betraying her fear. Or perhaps it was the cold. The further north they had gone, they’d been assaulted by more than just undead. They had been forced to combat the biting cold, pervasive melancholy, and ubiquitous darkness as well. The crypt that had become their sanctuary was even worse, almost as if whatever had robbed the area of its warmth and light was concentrated in the place. It left her feeling uncomfortable and more apprehensive than even their dire situation warranted. She felt as if she was always on the verge of panic – a sheer animal response that told her she should be running away as quickly as her feet could carry her.

“The revenant is a being of death and poison,” the paladin said. “Shards of his skill remain within us, fighting any effort at healing. Even your natural vitality is being suppressed.”

“I…I’ve never heard of anything like that,” one of the warriors – a swordsman with shaggy, brown hair – said.

“That is not surprising,” Abdul stated. “I have not seen anything like it in almost two decades, and even this is more powerful than what I encountered so long ago.”

“How do we fight it?” Talia asked.

Abdul shook his head. “We cannot,” he said, a weary look on his face. “Our goal now is to escape. We need help if we are going to –”

The paladin’s face went pale, and his words died on his lips. A moment later, he croaked, “It is here. It has come for us.”

Talia’s panic redoubled, and she very nearly sprang to her feet and started running, heedless of the direction. She only knew that she needed to move, and as quickly as possible. But it only lasted a moment before she smothered the terror with sheer force of will. The warriors accompanying them were not so controlled, and one of them did precisely what her instincts told her to do.

The spear-wielding woman darted away and into the darkness, going deeper into the crypt. They hadn’t had the opportunity to explore their surroundings, but Abdul had said that he couldn’t sense the crypt’s boundaries. For all they knew, it went on for miles underground. And who knew what sort of monsters made the crypt their home?

Talia had the presence of mind to reach for the woman, yelling, “Wait!” However, she was too slow to stop the panicked warrior from escaping. Almost as soon as she left the consecrated area, which was only about forty feet across, Talia heard a bloodcurdling scream. A moment later, the woman’s head rolled into view.

Suppressing the urge to vomit, Talia whipped her attention toward Abdul, and she hissed, “What do we do?! Go deeper into the crypt? Can we escape?!”

Eyes closed, Abdul didn’t respond. Instead, the paladin adopted an expression of intense concentration that lasted for a few seconds before his body was suffused with a blinding, white light. Before her eyes, Abdul’s wounds healed at a visible rate as a cleansing fire swept across his body. His broken leg straightened itself, and Talia could hear the bones adjusting as they were mended. Meanwhile, the gaping wounds on his arms and torso stitched themselves back together. But most impressively, his hand regrew. Over the space of a few seconds, it went from a bloody nub to a fully functional hand, with all the macabre steps in between.

Talia gaped in astonishment. There weren’t many skills that could regrow lost limbs. Most of the time, such a thing required a dedicated healer coupled with a fortune’s worth of potions brewed by a high-level alchemist. That Abdul could accomplish such a feat on his own…well, there was a reason the man was a legend. Even his armor, which had been rent by the revenant’s claws, reformed around him, and his shield regrew on his arm. In the space of a few seconds, he’d gone from the brink of death to entirely whole. He stood.

“W-what was that…”

“The [Blessing of the Sun Goddess],” he said. “Earned it a long, long time ago.”

“I don’t understand,” Talia said. She’d been raised in the Temple of the Sun, and she’d never heard of such a thing. Not from her mother. Not from the clergy who were her tutors. Nothing.

“It is a skill,” he explained. “Only usable once a decade. I earned it by slaying a demon lord and sacrificing his core to the sun goddess. Shar Maelaine herself granted it to me for my service.”

Talia didn’t know how to respond to that. She knew that her mother had some unique skills, some of which she’d earned outside of the confines of leveling. However, she thought that Lady Constance was unique in that respect. To find out otherwise was a blow to her worldview. Did she really know anything? What else had been hidden from her? The questions flowed through her mind, but they didn’t last long. Not when she knew that none of it really mattered. The revenant was close, and it was unlikely that any of them would survive his wrath.

“What do we do?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. She could already hear the shrieks of reapers coming from outside the crypt. The place was directly below a mausoleum, the only access a narrow staircase. So, at least the flesh golems wouldn’t be able to get to them.

But the revenant could. So could the reapers. And zombies. And who knew what else the Micayne Estate could throw at them?

“You and Adam will flee deeper into the crypt,” Abdul said, unsheathing his sword as he looked up the steps. “I will delay the revenant.”

Talia recognized that the man hadn’t claimed that he would stop the undead monster that had already wounded them so terribly. Only delay. Perhaps he could prevail, but Abdul obviously didn’t expect it. And if he couldn’t, who could? Her mother? An army of elites? Talia had no idea, but she knew that even if she survived the ordeal, she would have nightmares about the hateful creature.

She suppressed another shudder. “Do you know what’s down there?” she asked, nodding toward the tunnel that would lead them further into the crypt. She pointedly refused to look at the spear wielding woman’s head. She’d lasted only a few seconds before whatever was there had killed her. Would Talia prove any more resilient? Or would she meet the same fate?

“It’s almost here,” Abdul said, and almost as if it had been waiting for the paladin’s announcement, the monster itself descended the steps. It was the size of a normal human being, and its features suggested the same. But where its eyes should be were solid, black orbs wreathed in green mist. Its skin was unnaturally pale, and if Talia was in any state to notice such things, she would’ve had to acknowledge that, in life, it had possessed a handsome visage. Except for those eyes and the pulsing green veins, it could have been a young man not much older than her.

“You should not have come here, Abdul,” the thing rasped, its voice sounding like two rocks grating together. “I have no wish to kill you.”

“You have crossed too many lines, Abraham,” the paladin said, stepping forward. “I cannot stand idly by while you delve into the darkest of arts. She is gone, and there is nothing you can do to bring her back.”

“According to you,” the revenant said. “I have made more progress in the last ten years than –”

“Enough!” the paladin barked, slashing his sword through the air. A flash of flickering, orange light arced out, but when it hit the revenant, it dissipated into harmless motes. “I will hear nothing of your abominable deeds!”

The revenant sighed – a curious thing, considering that its chest had remained still throughout the conversation. It was an undead abomination, and thus, did not need to breathe.

“Constance always understood,” the thing said, its voice weary. “Very well. For the friendship we once shared, I offer you one chance. Surrender the girl, and you and the other warrior may flee. Do not, and I shall take your soul and twist it to my own ends. This, I vow.”

“No.”

The monster’s shoulders sagged, but it didn’t seem surprised. “So be it,” it said, stepping forward. Once it reached the end of the steps, a glowing wall sprang up before it. Abdul’s [Consecration], Talia knew. For a brief moment, she thought it might hold. Or perhaps it was only hope. Either way, it proved a foolish expectation, because the revenant only paused for a few seconds before it began to push through. It happened slowly, as if it was swimming through gelatin, but it was making headway.

Abdul turned to her, saying, “Why are you still here? Go! I do not know how long I can hold it.”

Talia didn’t want to leave him. She’d seen the revenant in action, and she knew how poorly Abdul was likely to fare. He was powerful – one of the strongest people Talia had ever met – but against something like the revenant, his power counted for almost nothing. If she stayed, maybe she could tip the balance in their favor. She could still heal, after all.

But it was a stupid idea. She had already seen how ineffective her healing was against the wounds caused by the revenant. More likely, she would only get in the way. And besides – she was terrified. It had asked Abdul to “surrender the girl”, and she wasn’t so naïve as to think it meant anyone but her – which begged the question of why. Talia had no interest in getting an answer to that question.

With one last glance at Abdul, she grabbed the other warrior’s wrist and dragged him toward the darkness, choosing the unknown threat of the crypt over the well-established power of the revenant. The gloom swallowed them whole the moment they passed the boundary of Abdul’s consecration. Behind them, Talia heard the first clash between the paladin and the revenant, but she couldn’t spare the attention.

There was a brief gust of air, startling her, but she chose to ignore it in favor of forging ahead. It took her a few more steps to realize that the wrist she’d been grasping wasn’t attached to a body. A wave of nausea coursed through her as she tried to make sense of the severed hand in her grip. She hadn’t felt anything but a slight gust! And the warrior hadn’t uttered a sound! What could have done such a thing?!

A second later, Talia felt a vicelike grip around her neck. She kicked out, connecting with what felt like a solid wall. She tried to scream, but no air flowed through her throat. She clawed at the hand around her neck, but it was to no avail. It wasn’t until she saw a familiar set of eyes boring into her that she realized what had happened.

The revenant had come for her.

No – that didn’t make sense. She could still hear Abdul fighting it only a few dozen feet away. The only way that it could be a revenant…

Oh, Goddess – there are two of them, she thought.

That’s when she noticed the differences. The one that had attacked her had once been female, though it looked strikingly similar to what Talia belatedly realized had been a twin brother. But instead of black orbs rimmed in green mist, the female’s black eyes exuded a red haze.

The monster lifted her off her feet. She kicked, clawed, and tried to scream, but it was useless. The revenant’s grip was like iron. It stepped forward, pushing into the consecrated territory, and said, “Abdul. Cease your struggle, or the girl will die.”

The sounds of battle stopped. “W-what…your own children…”

“You have no right to judge me, paladin,” said the female revenant. “They are more now than they ever were before, and they will be greater still. Better than you. Better than me. They are the future!”

Talia had no clue what the conversation meant, save that someone was controlling both revenants, and whoever that was knew Abdul on a personal level. It was probably Abraham Micayne, but she couldn’t be sure. Nor did she have any desire to find out. Either way, she suspected that she wouldn’t have much choice.

“Make a choice, Abdul,” said the female revenant. “Continue your pointless fight, and the girl dies. Surrender, and the daughter of the sun goddess’s chosen will be spared.”

Talia wanted him to fight. He was one of the strongest people in the world. Despite the odds, he would win! But she couldn’t speak. She couldn’t urge him to continue. Even if he failed, at least they would go down like true warriors.

But there was also a part of her that desperately wanted to live, that clung to the hope that the revenant had told the truth. Surrender, and live. That was the deal. She knew it was the coward’s way out, but she couldn’t keep that small part of her from hoping that Abdul would give up.

He didn’t.

Instead, he and the other revenant clashed once again, and though Talia couldn’t see what had happened, she knew in her heart that Abdul had fallen.

“The wrong choice, my old friend,” said the monster. Talia didn’t know whether or not she agreed, because a moment later, she was released. She collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath, and the two revenants looked down on her with pitiless, black gazes. The male said, almost as if speaking to himself, “Yes, yes – she will do. She is the key.”

A shiver ran up Talia’s spine at that declaration.