Ignite the Sun
Chapter 65: Fool’s tomb (4)

Chapter 65: Fool’s tomb (4)

The undead warrior reacted instantly, gracefully dodging the coordinated attack and putting some distance between itself and its opponents.

"Slippery bastard." Maya grumbled.

Cassian assessed the monster - while every undead up to a zombie was an empty husk, Devourers maintained some of their skills and muscle memory after becoming undead. He could see that whoever the body belonged to during life clearly knew his way around a sword.

"How did he even find a body of someone who can fight? I thought they were supposed to be nobles!" Maya grunted, barley avoiding a slash of the enemy blade.

"We’re you under the impression that all nobles just eat and lounge around?" Cassian shouted back, fruitlessly attacking the undead knight. "Knights are also nobles, and even if we don’t count them plenty of people in the high society pick up the sword - that’s the one thing they’re expected to do."

"Well, I stand corrected - but do you have a plan how to defeat this guy?"

Cassian locked swords with the monster.

"Let me think..."

The style he was fighting with belonged to a Duelist, a formally trained swordsman who haven’t actually fought outside a tournament. It meant that he would likely stumble if he changed the rules somehow, but can he do so?

During a brief respite his eyes fell on Elira and an idea formed in his mind.

"Ellie, can you use your druid powers down here?"

"I don’t know I have some seeds with me but I can’t tell if the city’s array still protects us from the Blight this deep - especially with fools protection."

"It will work." Maya assured her. "The protection only blocks sentient forces from looking inside the barrier, it lets through any natural forces."

Elira nodded and threw a few seeds in the cracks between stones.

"You need to keep him in one place for a bit."

"I’ll take care of that."

Maya closed the distance to the undead night und delivered a devastating uppercut with her mace - which was obviously blocked, but it didn’t matter since that was just a distraction.

She headbutted the monster and I’m a one swift motion grabbed him and put him in a headlock.

"Now!"

Elira pressed her hands to the ground and several thick vines sprouted from between the stones - they quickly approached the undead knight and started wrapping themselves around his legs.

Seconds later he was locked in place, with no chance of escape - and not a moment too soon, as he reared back aiming to a hit Maya’s face with the back of his head.

She managed to duck before it happened, freeing his upper half as a trade-off, but it wasn’t important anymore.

A steel blade flashed in the monsters eyes as Cassian’s sword passed through its neck with little resistance.

The body remained upwards because of the vines, but the head flew away and rolled down the stairs leading to the next level.

"Oh my, what a mess!"

A new voice came from behind them - they turned back to see that Sylara was standing back there.

Well, a green partially translucent version of her.

"Lady Sylara, what are you doing here? I thought you could see down here." Maya sounded surprised.

"Oh I couldn’t until just a little bit ago." She gestured at the plants. "That guy made sure to destroy any potential domain connections inside his ’game’ so that no one can spoil it - but know you’ve given me an in."

" So you know about the game... Did you know he left a memic here?" Cassian questioned.

Sylara looked at him in surprise.

"No I did not, did the old man really left one of those behind?"

"Yes, it’s rather annoying."

"Well then, would you mind if I tagged along with you? I’d love to talk to him..."

Cassian couldn’t decipher the emotion in her eyes, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to deny someone like that - besides it would certainly speed up their exploration, and they wouldn’t have to worry about the undead anymore.

"If you wish to do so I have nothing against it."

"Neither do I." Elira nodded.

"I wouldn’t dare to disagree my Lady." Maya bowed a little.

"Splendid! Let’s find the old fart then."

***

The fifth level was completely devoid of traps, but instead opted for a more maze-like structure, filled with dead ends an looping corridors.

Every so often they would encounter one of the Devourer knights, but at a snap of Sylara’s fingers the exploded into a flurry of multicoloured flowers.

Since the journey became so leisurely, they filled the Guardian on everything that happened since they’ve entered the tunnels.

"Really? Dabbling in necromancy, just because someone criticised your poor design? Shame on you, old man." Sylara looked rather incensed by what she heard.

She looked quite irritated by the time they’ve found their final opponent.

The monster looked quite similar to the Devourers, but with one minor difference - its eyes were red and glinted with a perverse semblance of life.

"Oh for crying out loud..."

Before the undead could even move Sylara was already behind it, grabbing it’s head.

"You’re lucky this abomination didn’t escape." She grumbled, and squeezed.

The monster’s skull popped like a fresh grape, spraying the surroundings in black blood and viscera.

"Now come." She pointed at the door to the tomb proper. "I’ve got a bone to pick with a certain dead man."

***

The chamber was large, circular and strikingly empty - there were only two things in the room, a big sarcophagus with a familiar jester mask engraved on the lid, and a giant magic crystal floating right above it.

The Fool appeared out of nowhere to congratulate them on their achievements - just like usual.

"It’s great that you managed to make it here, and so fast too! I should maybe..."

His voice trailed off as he noticed Sylara standing right next to the trio.

"Hi old man." She put on a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. "you have thirty seconds to explain why you did that, and depending on your answer I might not immediately send you back to the afterlife."

"Little Sy, I have no idea what you might be-"

"Twenty seven..." Sylara cracked her knuckles.

"Alright, alright I’ll tell you!" The Fool sounded a little panicked. "It was a happy coincidence that the companions of the current Flamebearer were the ones to finally attempt my game properly, and I needed an excuse to test them - fortunately the guard complained about difficulty so I amped it up a bit..."

Sylara crossed her arms, clearly unsatisfied with the answer.

"You didn’t have to use necromancy to do that, you could have easily made some constructs or golems."

"But I didn’t even bring them back them back to life, I just juiced them up a bit!" The mask argued.

"You’ve made a Leech - I could forgive the rest, but if that thing escaped and I wasn’t in the city, it would have killed hundreds of people."

"I promise I would have put it down if they didn’t manage to kill it or it tried to escape."

"That’s not good enough."

Elira leaned closer to Cassian.

"Am I the only one who feels like we’re in the middle of a family squabble?" She whispered.

"You would be correct in your feeling." Sylara clearly heard her. "He told you we know each other, but he forgot to mention why. Will you tell them or do I have to?"

"But it will break my mystique..." The Fool whined.

Sylara took that as a ’no’.

"Everyone, meet Antonio de Faux, a famous archmage also known as the Fool..." She eyed the mask. "And my grandfather."

"I did not see that coming." Maya commented.

"I mean it does make sense, if the city was made by him then it stands to reason that his descendant would be the one on charge of it..." Elira nodded.

"Bah, now that you exposed me this form doesn’t make much sense!"

The mask trembled, and the mist holding it began changing shape - a second later a middle aged man wearing a mask and colourful robes was standing in its place.

"Take that off, you look ridiculous." Sylara snatched the jester’s face from his real one.

The Fool’s - or Antonio’s - skin was a little lighter than his granddaughter’s, but not by much; his long, dark coiling hair was tied behind his head, leaving his striking green eyes visible.

All in all, his appearance was fairly mundane as far as archmages go - but it did pose a very important question:

"Did you look like that when you died?" Cassian asked.

"Well, I had a couple of holes in my stomach, my skin was incinerated beyond recognition and one of my eyes was gouged out - but other than that yeah, why do you ask?"

"I’m just curious how did you die, something you promised to tell us once we get here."

"Ah yes." He clasped his hands. "I’m afraid I’m under a gag order, and can’t tell you too much, but the main cause of my death is rather simple."

Antonio grinned like a fool.

"I rebeled against the Sun God."