Dark Altar

Will could hear his footsteps echo off the stone floor. He could see anything except a dim light at the end of the corridor.

Will, Nisha, and Rocky trudged down the pitch-black passageway until they arrive at the dimly lit room.

It was a mausoleum. Thousands of corpses were wrapped in white muslin cloth.

Will inspected the dead. The deceased were humans, we'll almost be humans.

These were Elven catacombs. Mounted torches burned with a pale yellowish-green flame along the walls.

The smell of rotting flesh invades Will's nose. Yet, Nisha was the most affected. Her sense of smell was a hundred times stronger than Will's.

Nisha's hand uses mana to cover the smell, putting the party at a disadvantage.

"Nisha, I think we might be in real trouble here," Will said.

"You're right. Do you see that black altar in the middle of the room, it belongs to a necromancer," Nisha said.

Will tensed, hearing that word spoken in his mind.

"Are you certain?" Will asked.

"Yes. Can you feel the sinister magic," Nisha nodded.

"I didn't know necromancers existed?" Will asked. Will didn't know what a necromancer looked like so he picture a variation of the gothic kids when he dropped his children off at school.

"They are evil mages, who worship the Goddess Nyx and her children that help her manage the underworld.

During the Great War, they were hunted and killed, their kind wiped from Terra," Nisha said.

"But if necromancers were exterminated what's one doing here?" Will asked.

"After the Great War, their souls were imprisoned I the Spirit World. I've seen their prison with my own eyes. I'm not sure how one escaped?" Nisha said.

"Imprisoned in the Spirit World?" Will said in shock.

"Yes, spirits waiting on familiar take shifts guarding the banished dark priest. According to legend, they have been trapped there for thousands of years, biding their time," Nisha said.

"Have any escaped?" Will asked curiously trying to understand the situation he was in.

"None has a dark priest escaped," Nisha said.

"If that's the case, this could be bad?" Will said.

Nisha nodded

"Quiet! I hear something," she said.

"Someone is patrolling," Nisha cautioned.

"We need more information. We don't know anything for sure yet, so let's just wait until we have more facts before we start freaking out," Will comforted her.

Quietly, Will, Nisha, and Rocky tip-toed along the catacomb's wall.

At the entrance to the mausoleum read a sign, [Catacombs of the Fallen Brave: These Warriors died in Battled of the Gods].

"It can't be, can it?" Will asked in amazement.

"It must be. These Elves died fighting in the Great War. This is a shire. The deceased were enshrined as heroes.

Will steadied his nerves and pushed deeper into the underground chamber. The catacombs gave way to a rectangular room with limestone walls and stained-glass windows.

It was a medieval cathedral, with depictions of Elvish archers and warriors in supplication to Gaia and her children. Will froze when he saw a stained glass image of the Goddess Demeter. Will could swear the image starred back at him for a few seconds.

Also inside the cathedral was a heavily armored wight. It had unnaturally pale skin and wielded an evil-looking dark gray scythe and wore black wrought iron armor. The wight floated over to face the intruders.

If that wasn't bad enough, it wasn't alone. Skeletons disconnect from the ways to join the attack.

"Nisha any ideas?" Will asked.

"Shoot the skeleton in the head, and I'll kill the wight spirit to spirit, as your attacks would just phase through the monster.

Nisha stalked into a wight, and Will began using [arrowhead] to kill the skeletons with headshots. Soon all the skeletons were dead and the wight was laid dead covered in claw marks.

"We were lucky they weren't expecting company and there were few monsters to kill. However, the Dark Priest should feel the lost connection to these monsters. We've lost our element of surprise" Nisha said.

"Should we loot the church?" Will asked.

"Aren't you blessed by Gaia, her champion? Don't blaspheme her Church. Quickly consecrate the church?" Nisha advised.

"How?" Will said cluelessly.

"Destroy the evil item on the altar and replace it with something precious, then offer it as a sacrifice in prayer to Gaia?" Nisha said.

"I've never prayed before. I don't know how to pray?" Will said.

"Hurry we don't have a lot of time," Nisha hurried him.

"Fine," Will said.

Will went to the altar and broke the staff placed on it. Then he took Wight's sickle and put it on the altar with some gold coins.

Will knelt in front of the altar as he'd seen the priest do before and began to pray.

"Respected Mother of Life, I come to you in prayer. Previously, a Dark Priest invaded your cathedral. We have banished these evil creatures. Now, I offer the magic core and what I value most. Forever may your glory shine on the Terra," Will prayed.

After Will finished praying, the cores and gold disappeared.

Then the cathedral brighten and filled with plants. Will was amazed to see light and life return to once dark and dead church.

After consecrating the church, they headed down another corridor only to enter another large chamber filled with more skeletons and wights.

The trio fought their way through the chamber, down a pair of hallways, and through another passageway.

The further they walked, the more undead they fought. They also fought higher-level undead. They cleared a library, a room filled tall oak treehouse, a bathhouse, and a hanging garden.

"How big is this place?" Will asked exhausted at all the fighting.

"From what I gather, this place used to be a Wood Elf grotto.

And then at some point, this settlement was overrun by necromancer. I bet if we continue, we'll eventually come out near an Elven city," Nisha said.

"This must have been a grand city. I would love to visit their capital" Will said imaging a new trading partner.

"Maybe one day. I imagine if we clear this grotto, they owe you a favor," Nisha said

Those words hit Will like a truck full of gold.

"A favor?" Will asked his eyes filling with greed.

"It's a possibility," Nisha said.

Will, Nisha, and Rocky marched on. The further the went the more difficult the journey. Soon they didn't just have to deal with monsters but traps. The number of traps increased the further they walked.

They dodged spiked pits, exploding pressure plates, and missing tiles that led to a bottomless abyss.

Soon, they entered a room with a stone bridge. Across the bridge was a heavy-duty metal portcullis at the far side of the room.

Flanking it were a pair of Skeleton Nights in black armor, riding undead wolves.

In front of the Skeleton Knights, were a skeletal squad of pikemen, undead goblins, heavily armored wights.

As the trio walked a bit closer, they saw the small army move to formation. Even worse an undead healer stood behind the portcullis.

The undead moved quickly to break the stone bridge. That gave Will, Nisha, and Rock no choice but to charge across.

Will cast [earthquake] and [meteor] destroying the pikemen and damaging portcullis.

The Skelton Nights on wolf back glowered at Will. Their empty eye sockets inflamed in rage. The bony hands wiped their mounts into a frenzy.

While Nisha fought the uninjured wights, Will and Rocky each took a knight.

Rocky beat his chest and roared in excitement and raised his Daodao cleaver-shaped sword.

It wasn't until he roared that Will looked up at the ceiling of the cave. Three to five-meter-long stalactites shook from the ceiling. If those fell, it would skewer an undead and living person the same.

"Sh, quiet down. Do you want to end up like a kebab?" Will said to Rocky.

Rocky nodded and charged at the wolf rider. Since Rocky was made from rock, the wolf's bites were useless. Rocky only had to worry about the rider.

Will, on the other hand, had to worry about both. Will nimbly avoided the wolf's powerful bite and cast [erosion] sinking and locking the wolf's paw into the ground.

With a stationary wolf, it wasn't much longer until the fight was over. Will used his sword to kill both beasts. Rocky finished before he did.

Will looked up only to see the healer fleeing. Will cast [arrowhead] and snipped the healer in the head.

[Arrowhead] was my favorite spell. It was no wonder why Elder Thaddeus waited three years to give him such a range spell.

After Nisha killed the last wight, the trio walked through the damaged portcullis.

As they kept walking, Will noticed the stone ground turned to lush grass. Everywhere around Jim's was vegetation. Even the stalactites shrunk.

'Wait?' Will said pausing this party. For a moment he thought he saw stalactites wriggle.

"Look," Will said pointing to the cave's ceiling.

"It's moving, is it going to crash? Is this a trap?" Nisha asked only to the stalactites fall and spread their wings.

"Shit! Their bats run," Will said.

Half a meter long bats flew after Will and Nisha. Will hoped on Nisha and off they ran. Nisha ran, while Will fought on a bat or two at a time.

Finally, after an hour, they came to the giant hall! The Boss Room.

Outside the hall were only two creatures, however, Will could feel their mana at a distance.

They were zombie Elven soldiers. They had creamy, flawless skin and bright fiery red eyes. Their hair was long, black, smooth, and their armor was dark as midnight, and wore light armor. No doubt the zombie Elven armor was strong enough to stop a punch from Rocky.

They each wielded a long green curved sword covered like the bow he'd plundered.

Behind the zombies was an Elder Lich, the Necromancer, and Dark Priest.

It was clear the Elder Lich had no plans to fight, merely to observe the battle.

The zombies gave a stern glare before they began attacking. The zombies were excellent swordsmen. Compared to the zombies, Goblin Chiefs was placid.

The zombies fought like crazed untiring knights. After the half, an hour of fight Will felt his arm begin to grow tired. Will cast spell after the spell, the zombies were able to neutralize his spells.

Finally, Will was able to drown his zombie in a quicksand only to be decapitated a second later.

While Rocky was strong, the zombies were dexterous. Rocky eventually dropped his weapons, grappled the zombies, and squeezed him to death similar to how the Goblin Chief tried to kill Nisha.

"Very good, you've earned the right to face me and die. Congratulations mortal, very few have advanced this far. And no one has been daring enough to consecrate my cathedral to a different god. Know, I'll present your bones to my god as a sacrifice when I reconsecrate the altar to Thanatos," the Elder Lich said inviting the guest into the throne room.

The pale yellowish-green torches lighter the throne room. Tattered Elven flags hung from the ceiling rafters. Will wondered what the flags represented cities or military units. There were easily well over a hundred flags.

Above the throne, the Elder Lich floated like an unholy angel. Will knew the only way to kill a Lich was to break its phylactery. Will and Nisha gave a cursory inspection to find it.

"Oh, looking for this?" The Elder Lich said holding up a purple mithril vase.

"How about this to make this fight fair, I'll leave my phylactery on my throne. Yes, watching you despair shall make this more enjoyable for me," the Elder Lich said.

Will looked around the Throne Room, the only he saw were bulky tombstones on the floor. The Throne Room was a graveyard.

"Shall we begin?" the Elder Lich asked rhetorically summoning hundreds of Elven zombie warriors.