We waited for Lemien to regain his composure and leave the room before we made our way in. The Bolignois had taken the cursed chalice with him. Just looking at it filled me with dread.

“What the hell was that?” Eli hissed at me.

“How should I know?” I asked back. “The star on the ground looks like the one Raiya used to sacrifice the Herbologist,” I said.

“Do you think he was speaking to a demon?” Eli asked.

“No, demons have a different language. Lemien would die just listening to it.”

“Then what was that?” Eli asked.

“It’s not the Primordial Lord of death either,” I said, more to myself than to Eli. “Something’s not right about this whole thing. Lemien isn’t the brains behind this operation. Who was the Sebyan’s mortal enemy before they hid beneath the ground?”

“I don’t know,” Eli said. “Why do you ask?”

“There’s something we don’t know about this battle for survival,” I said. “Either way, standing here and talking about it will just get us killed. Let’s look around. If we don’t find anything useful, we should go up, toward the anteroom.”

Eli nodded and busied himself looking around.

“Don’t touch anything that looks suspicious,” I warned. “There are too many cursed items in this tower.”

Our search turned out uneventful. We left the grim-looking room and headed upwards, toward the anteroom.

“It’s a miracle this tower’s still standing,” Eli whispered as we carefully climbed the stairs.

“Tell me about it,” I said. “This reminds me, we should find the necromancer’s lab. That’s where he used to keep his infected mice.”

“What for?” Eli asked.

“Leave no stone unturned,” I replied.

Finding the lab was harder than we’d imagined. The first door we opened led us to a small cell, six feet in height and about three in width. We found another room with many stacked boxes and barrels, covered in moss and mold. The most excitement we got was when we stumbled into a dirty kitchen.

The place was damp, and smelled of rotten meat. It was fairly illuminated though. A chandelier hung on top, with more than a dozen candles casting their lights on the ground. Eli let out a disgusted grunt the moment we stepped foot inside. Two long tables stood before us. Somebody had stacked all kinds of dirty utensils on top, most of them covered in soot and cobweb.

“No one’s touched this place in a while huh?” Eli whispered in between muffled coughs.

“I really hope this kitchen’s a forgotten one,” I mumbled under my breath.

I remembered the food I ate in this tower, and my stomach churned. The place looked unused, yet smelled of rot and decay.

“Let’s look some more,” I said. “My nose tells me we’ll find something.”

“I hate to think of the something we’ll find,” Eli grumbled.

The kitchen was indeed hiding more than dirty utensils. We walked beyond the large tables, making sure we didn’t stumble into anything. If one casserole were to fall, everything else would follow. Imagine the ruckus that would cause. Lemien and his bodyguards will be at us before we could reach the door to escape.

Beyond the tables was a large wooden, mossy door. Eli shot me a worried look and I nodded, encouraging him to push it open. We found ourselves in a circular dining room. Tables were cleared off the middle though, stacked against the walls. The place was dark, save for a lone candle at the other end of the room.

The smell of rotting corpses invaded our nostrils. We both lurched forward and put our hands to our mouths. I barely held the dried meat Eli had given me before we left the city. Eli wasn’t that lucky.

He bellowed in agony as he relieved himself of his breakfast. I winced as I watched the poor soul struggle to stand straight. Every time he’d stand and think it was over, the smell would invite itself into his nose. He’d bend forward again and vomit some more.

The commotion we’d just caused didn’t disrupt the noise I had heard upon entering the room. It was a steady, repetitive grunt. I pricked my ears to hear more of it. With Eli bellowing beside me, it wasn’t easy to find the source of the sound. Fortunately, Eli’s stomach had nothing to reject anymore. The man stood back up, struggling to keep a straight posture.

“Do you hear that?” I whispered.

Eli stood still for a while, pricking his ears to listen in as well. “Sounds like someone, or something, grunting.”

“Do you hear the thumps too?”

Eli nodded.

We both looked toward the lone candle in the distance. It was too dark to make out anything but a bulky shape, moving about.

“What is that thing?” Eli asked.

“I say it’s something we must not bother,” I answered. “There’s nothing of value here,” I went on. “We best back away and look for the necromancer’s lab.”

Eli agreed. His stomach agreed even more vehemently. He was pinching his nose, trying to stop the nasty smell from invading his nostrils again. We backed away slowly, making sure our steps were as silent as possible. The door behind us opened with a loud creak. That wasn’t our doing. We weren’t near the door yet.

We turned slowly to see the undead maid staring at us.

I moved quickly and immediately. I ran at the undead and punched her in the gut. That was where Lemien had established his link to this corpse. The link broke, but I had punched the poor maid a little too hard. Her body folded as she flew backwards and into the utensils.

Casseroles hit pans, and pans hit plates, mugs, pots, cauldrons. Everything fell to the ground. I covered my ears as the loudest clattering sound you could ever hear announced intruder presence in the tower. The noise went on for an eternity. I found myself praying for it to stop, but the clattering went on, and on, and on…

“Great!” Eli yelled over the pounding utensils. “Fan-fucking-tastic!”

“I didn’t mean to hit her that hard,” I protested. “She was surprisingly light!”

My protest, and yelling, boomed in the empty room as the clattering utensils had finally stopped. An eerie silence settled then. We could no longer hear the thumping or the regular grunts.

“Umm… Myles?!” Eli said, tentatively.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“I think we should run.”

“Why?”

I turned around to look at Eli. He was fixing the other side of the room with eyes wide open, horrified. The candle had finally cast its light on the thing we heard earlier. I saw a hulking giant look at us, a cleaver, about ten feet long, in hand. He wore a bloodied apron around his inflated torso. His eyes had a blue glow to them. He pointed his heavy cleaver at us and grunted.

“I think you’re right,” I told my skinny friend. “Last one to make it to the door dies!”

Then I dashed toward the already cluttered kitchen. I kicked everything that stood in my way, attempting to reach the door before that giant caught up. I heard Eli yell at me but I chased the thoughts away. That thing was too big to fight. One misstep and I could die. I wasn’t going to stand around and fight it. Let Eli handle it if he wanted, or at least serve as decoy.

I was first to reach the kitchen door. Before I could stretch my arm toward it to open it, the door swung open. One of Lemien’s bodyguards barred our way out. I heard more hurried footsteps, running toward us. More undead showed up. There were three bodyguards standing at the kitchen door then.

‘Oh boy, aren’t we in trouble!’ Eva commented.

I backed away, slowly, sword already unsheathed. Eli bumped into me. He was about to start yelling but the sight of the armored bodyguards silenced him.

“What do we do?” he whispered. “What the fuck do we do?”

“Can you sense their energy?” I asked him.

“I can’t use it for long though,” he answered.

“Then make sure you remember where the link to their master is,” I said. “Each one has a different spot.”

“You want me to fight them while you run?” Eli protested.

“You can’t fight the big one behind us,” I said.

“Neither of us can,” Eli said.

“We only have one choice here,” I retorted. “Do you want to die?”

“Not today, no.”

“Then stand your ground and fight. With some luck, we can finish these three off before the giant decides to join in. We do that, and we run for the stairs. The stairway’s too narrow for his size. He won’t follow.”

“Fuck!” Eli yelled. “Why is always like this with you?”

“Shut up and fight!” I yelled back. “Take the one to the right. I’ll take care of the other two.”

I dashed at the two armored undead. I could feel the link they shared with their master. One had it in the heart area, the other somewhere in his right thigh. Both were heavily armored, hitting those links would prove harder if I took any hit as well.

To make matters worse, as if on cue, the giant stormed into the room. He kicked the pans and cauldrons out of his way. One sooty cauldron caught Eli at the back of his head and the latter fell unconscious.

I didn’t have time to worry about my unconscious friend as a sword had missed my only remaining eye by inches. I immediately retaliated with a shoulder bash, which sent the undead toppling backward. I slashed at the next one, hitting him behind the knee. That was a sure way to bring him down for an execution. He remained standing though, and swung his sword at my exposed neck.

I deflected the sword and went for his jugular as well. My sword connected and I felt it cut through rotten flesh. The undead only grunted and advanced toward me. A punch from his steel gauntlet made my eye roll, and red sparkles danced before me. I was clearly on the losing side. My sword fell to the side, and the undead was coming for the kill.

A strong wind to my left lifted my hair up. The undead that was about to skewer me was cut in half. The giant had brought his cleaver down and missed me. The undead bodyguard didn’t escape decapitation though. He was cut in two symmetrical, vertical halves. The cleaver turned sideways and I felt a sudden urge to duck.

The cleaver immediately swung sideways. If it weren’t for that sudden intuition, I would’ve been sliced in half. The undead that was about to finish the unconscious Eli, suffered the fate I’d just escaped.

“What are you doing?!” I heard Lemien’s voice echo through the tower stairs. “You have to kill the live ones! Not my men!”

The giant brute grunted in response.

I crawled toward Eli, collecting my sword on the way, and slapped him awake.

“W-what?” he asked.

“Get up!” I hissed. “We have to get out of here!”

The giant had just noticed us, as though Lemien was controlling him then. He saw us then held his cleaver in both hands, ready to reduce us to minced meat.