Finally gathering my courage and ignoring the ominous feeling residing within the pit of my stomach, I ordered Jareth to push open the imposing doors to find out what resided inside. The metal hinges whined as Jareth continued to apply force with his four arms. Even for him, it was a difficult task, so I imagine the doors were meant to deter any intruders from ever entering through sheer physical requirements.

Violet would have been a great help to open the door, but even the expanded corridor we were in wasn't large enough to hold her and allow room to move for anyone, much less her. So we were stuck with smaller summons to fight with, but luckily we now had 2 tier 4's, so we should be able to handle almost anything.

Queenie and Saber were chittering their mandibles and claws in excitement while Musashi remained calm and could be seen sharpening his scythes against each other in an imposing manner. Brutus was merged into my shadow, for now, to protect me from any surprise attacks. I had 3 summons out and Alex had 2, which was about our comfortable summoning limit, not to mention there wasn't any room left for even Emett who was a bit too weak right now to summon unless it was an emergency.

*Creak*

*Thud*

The doors finally budged and slammed into the walls of the entrance, and what came into view was something I never expected. An army of skeletons of all types in neat rows were facing us with weapons drawn as if expecting us, and even further back was what I presumed to be their leader. The room was lit up with ghostly blue torches barely lighting up the room.

"It just had to be a lich didn't it."

A large bony figure in ornate robes and jewelry was sitting upon a gilded throne as if he was a ruler holding court. He was easily tier 4, but luckily for us, liches strength was in their ability to summon allies and not personally being stronger. Unfortunately, they were extremely intelligent and weren't lacking in magical ability either, but most centered around summoning the undead top do their bidding.

If given preparation time, they weren't an enemy one would casually face, but they needed wiping out before they became a true calamity upon gathering enough allies. No corpse was safe as they could reanimate even dragons if they had enough strength, much less humans and other monsters.

"Welcome, I've been expecting you since the moment I felt my dullahan perish. Please come in and be good guests, it's been so long since I've had intelligent company rather than mindless undead to converse with. You may address me as Atahualpa, I was the king of an Incan civilization until I was laid to rest in this tomb.

It seems some event has raised me as a lich if I recall correctly, now what is it that you have come to this tomb for? Is it gold and riches, or perhaps fame and glory? Thieves the lot of you!!" -Atahualpa

"No, no, we came to investigate the undead residing above us and stumbled across this tomb, we had no intention of stealing from your highness." -Thomas

*Snort*

"Well it doesn't matter much since neither of you or your pets will be making it out of here alive, you'll become a great addition to my strength until finally the great king Atahualpa may rise again and rule over civilization. Guards, Attack!" -Atahualpa

Seeing that his intentions had been made clear, Alex and I became tense in anticipation of some trap or aggressive move. Which turned out to be just the thing to do, as a giant boulder was shot at us at impressive speeds. We both had to utilize special skills to avoid the hurtling boulder of sandstone. I teleported right outside the range of its reach, while Alex sprouted wings and flew toward the ceiling, just barely managing to get out of the way.

With the first move having been made, we decided to counter-attack and sent our summons out in front of us to battle the skeletons. The monsters and animal skeletons were at the front with the armored warrior skeletons in the back donning the tribal armor they must have worn when they were alive. Adorning the armors were colorful beads and feathers of all sorts making for impressive figures, although the efficacy of the actual armor was in question considering how little they covered.

While Jareth and Musashi confronted the front line, the rest of us took supporting positions on the side and did our best to prevent them from being flanked. It was clear that they were trying to wear us down with fodder before swooping in for the kill.

Bones creaked and cracked every second, with Musashi being even more efficient than Jareth at mowing down the skeletons, his scythes sweeping through the bones like butter and raising through the swathes of creatures.

Brutus and Saber didn't remain idle either, as they began ripping and clawing their way from the outside edges of the line to prevent any flanking. Brutus was almost comical with leg and arm bones being ripped away from any nearby skeletons and staying in his mouth till he spits them out, I was tempted to make a joke, but the undead rushing towards us kind of prevented me from doing so.

Saber was a machine unto himself, acting as a carapaced tank, bashing nearby skeletons and cutting any down in front of him before moving on. His arms weren't the only thing working as any additional attacking undead were dealt with by his coiled tail that crushed their skulls upon contact.

We were making great headway, but there were still so many remaining. Our situation didn't get any better when Atahualpa began chanting in some foreign language and then sacrificing his own guards within a swirling magic circle. The souls being ripped from the animated undead wailed as they were sacrificed to the portal or something of the sort.

It was still a mystery as to what he was summoning, but ancient runes and a circle of bones began to form alongside the edges of the portal or whatever it was. Despite not knowing what the purpose of the portal was, it felt sinister yet incomplete as if it was searching for one last thing to finish the summoning.

Atahualpa had finished chanting and immediately charged towards us, presumably to finish what his guards had started. But unfortunately, my expectations were dashed, and what happened instead was that Alex was grabbed and drug back towards the portal after being surrounded by a magic barrier by the ancient lich. No sound was escaping the barrier, but I could see that she was distressed and calling out for help.

The last line of skeletons were being broken down by the summons and I forced my way past the line of undead through a gap made by one of Jareth's sweeps of his mace. Fractured bones rattled around me and scattered across the floor in messy piles, but none of that mattered as I did my best to make it to the back of the throne room where Alex was being held.

"With this sacrifice, the great magician will rise again in his peak form and aid me in conquering the continent, no, the world!" -Atahualpa

The ornately robed skeleton raised a bony hand with a sacrificial athame grasped within his fingers, ready to strike down and finish the ritual that I was still too slow to stop. When all of a sudden the lich froze and his mouth began to open and contort in what I could only assume was shock. Sticking out from the chest where his heart used to lay and now housed his core was a pitch-black stinger belonging to Queenie.

She had disappeared during the battle since direct combat wasn't her specialty and snuck along the dark walls until she positioned herself to take out the lich. It was perfectly reasonable that a tier 3 assassin type summon would be able to take out a tier 4 monster if the monster remained unaware of the imminent attack.

Luckily that attack seemed to be enough to snuff out the late king and he collapsed into his robes just a pile of dust and bones. From the now visible but broken core appeared a pitch-black soul that was dragged from its previous body into the sacrificial circle. A bright flash of golden light emanated from the circle and then ceased as soon as it had started, which I assumed to mean that whatever ritual it was had finished.

But that was going on in the back of my head as I rushed towards Alex to make sure she was alright. Aside from being a little shaken, she wasn't injured in any way.

"You alright Alex?" -Thomas

"Aside from almost being sacrificed in some sort of ritual I'm fine." She snarked back.

"Well if you can joke like that, I'm not as worried. It sure was a good thing Queenie was there to sneak attack the monologuing bastard." -Thomas

"She's getting some extra cores, that's for sure." -Alexis

"Hey, Alex, how do you think that bag of bones managed to snort earlier if he doesn't have any lungs?" -Thomas

"Who cares, I'm just glad I didn't get my soul dragged to who knows where." -Alexis

After being reassured that she was fine, I turned my head over to where the circle had been and saw an onyx colored egg with golden bones lined around the egg in horizontal rings.

"Do you want to bond with this monster egg? You did almost get sacrificed for it, so it only seems fair." -Thomas

"Hell no! I never want to get close to a skeleton again, much less have something to do with whatever ritual I was almost sacrificed to. You bond with it, I've already got one hatched summon anyways." -Alexis

"Well then, don't mind if I do," I told her as I reached for the egg after cutting my finger on the small carving knife I keep on my belt.