Maruyama Kugane - The Invaders of the Large Tomb

Greenham’s companions could not hide their surprise at this. Their expectations of an immediate battle had been shattered. But they also hesitated to strike first.

The undead harboured hatred for all living beings. But certain sentient undead were capable of suppressing their hatred to negotiate. If the living were to offer negotiation, it would usually end up as a bad trade, but if the undead made the first offer, there had been instances of people obtaining ancient items that had been made with now-forgotten knowledge.

It would be the best-case scenario if they didn’t have to fight a strong opponent like an Elder Lich.

Perhaps it was anxious because it couldn’t finish them off with traps or perhaps it recognized their skills and was looking for a way to settle things peacefully.

Considering all these factors, it would have been foolish to attack first since it would destroy any chance of negotiation. A hard battle without an established escape route carried huge risks.

Greenham’s companions looked at each other as if they had all arrived at the same conclusion.

It was the leader’s job to talk as the representative.

“Excuse me, we believe you are the owner of this tomb. We are—”

The Elder Lich turned its grotesque face to Greenham and raised its bony finger to its lips.

Meaning: be quiet.

It was not an action fitting an Elder Lich, but nobody was brave enough, no, nobody was stupid enough to say something like that to such a strong opponent.

Greenham closed his mouth obediently. In the hallway filled with silence, he doubted his ears when he heard “that sound” again.

The clacking noise he heard not too long ago. The noise of something knocking on the floor. And six of them.

Greenham’s team looked at each other. They could not believe their ears.

And everybody descended into panic.

“Who was it! Who said that Elder Lich was the master of this tomb?”

“I’m sorry! It was me!”

“What the hell is this? How does this make any sense?”

“Oiiiiiii, how are we supposed to win against this!”

“Even god’s blessing has its limits!”

Behind the first Elder Lich, similar monsters had showed themselves. Six of them.

There were total of seven extremely strong undead magic casters.

As long as they were of the same type of monster, they had similar methods of attack. In other word, if one had a way of neutralizing their attacks, it was theoretically possible to defeat all of them.

However, none of them possessed the method to do so, nor was it possible to possess such methods.

In this hopeless situation, Greenham and his comrades lost all will to fight.

“Then, let’s begin.”

Following the voice of the Elder Lich that did not show even a hint of wanting to negotiate, seven staves rose slowly. At the same time, Greenham’s shout echoed.

“Run!”

As if waiting for that command, all of them ran with all their strength in the opposite direction from the Elder Liches. Of course they had no time to think about what would be beyond the tunnel. They only sought to improve their chances of survival against the onslaught of Elder Liches.

The rogue ran at the front, then Greenham, then the magic caster, then the cleric and finally the warrior.

They all ran without hesitation.

A corner. Normally they would be wary of a monster around the corner, but considering the footsteps that came from behind them, there was no time to carefully look around before going.

They left everything up to luck and just ran.

On the either side of the hallway, there was a door made of stone, but they were afraid of running into a dead end and didn’t bother opening it.

Loud metallic sounds echoed through the hallway from the people wearing full plate armour, which could attract other monsters, but there was no time to cast ‘Silence’.

They ran and ran and ran.

After turning corners after corners and running down the tunnel at full speed, they had lost their bearings and could no longer tell where they were. If possible, they wanted to return to the entrance, but they couldn’t relax just yet.

“Are they still chasing us?”

Greenham asked while still running. The reply came from the warrior at the back.

“Yea! They’re running, too!”

“Damn it!”

“Stop running after us! Just use flight magic!”

“If they use flying magic, then they can just attack while following us, you idiot!”

“Let’s lock ourselves in some room and negotiate…”

The magic caster shouted while gasping for air. He was the least physically fit out of all the members and looked as if he was about to collapse. Greenham decided this was not the way to go.

They couldn’t last any longer.

Undead monsters like Elder Liches felt no such thing as fatigue. At this rate, they would eventually catch up and slaughter the exhausted workers.

“How are there so many Elder Liches…”

It was something that defied common sense.

“Is the master of this tomb something even stronger than an Elder Lich?!”

That was the only explanation he could think of. But did such undead exist? Greenham had no answer.

“Damn it! This god damn tomb!”

The warrior at the rear shouted while breathing hard.

As if waiting for that moment, the floor began to glow in shapes. It was big enough to surround all of Greenham’s group.

“Argh!”

Someone’s voice rang out with what sounded like a scream—

—and then there was a floating sensation, different from when they had fallen earlier.

♦ ♦ ♦

Greenham’s vision was nothing but pitch darkness. There was something crunching underneath his boots and he felt a slowly sinking sensation, as though he was being sucked into a swamp. He had panicked for a bit, but it didn’t seem too deep as he stopped sinking after he was submerged to about his waist level.

Greenham spoke out in the realm dominated by pitch darkness and silence, like a lost child looking for his parents.

“…Is there someone here?”

“Over here, Greenham.”

The voice of one of the comrades, the rogue, rang out. He didn’t sound too far away. Probably about the same distance they were keeping when they were running.

“…Is there anybody else?”

There was no reply. It was the expected answer. Considering there was no light, the magic caster or the warrior wasn’t likely to be here. He should consider it lucky that at least the rogue was with him.

“…It seems there’s only us.”

“That means… Che, I guess you’re right.”

He looked around with taking a step forward. The deep darkness was everywhere and invoked the fear that he wouldn't be able to tell where he himself ended and where the darkness started. There was no sign of movement anywhere.

“Should we turn on the light?”

“Sure thing.”

He wondered if their movement would break this silence, or activate a trap, and other negative thoughts creeped in. However, human eyes could not see in the dark and they needed some kind of light source.

“Hold on a moment.”

With the rogue’s voice, some kind of moving noise came from the darkness and there was a light.

The sight of the rogue holding a glowing stick was the first thing in view. And countless shining objects which reflected the light. It reminded him of the treasures in the mausoleum.

But that wasn’t the case.

Greenham barely suppressed his screams and the rogue looked as if he was about to have a seizure.

The light brought up countless reflections. Insects filled the entire room and the identity of the reflections were cockroaches. The room was filled with cockroaches of various size ranging from ones the size of pinky finger to ones which were over a meter long. Furthermore, they were stacked on top of each other in countless layers.