“Humans?”
Those outside the pub found the strange voice to be creepily enchanting. It was like a charming succubus gently luring them to her embrace of death.
Also, the respondent spoke to them using the universal tongue, whereas Sennefer apologized using Abyssal just now.
Could it be a human inside the pub?
“We’re human travelers.” Sennefer also switched to the universal tongue. “We know the Undying Brigade too. They used to be our allies.”
The others all realized that Sennefer was trying to be humble, which meant the situation was out of their control.
Apparently, they had stumbled into the territory of someone stronger than Sennefer, and it was not a good sign.
Madelyne used Voice Transmission to send Angor a message. “I’ll force open a plane passageway if it’s necessary. Remember to keep up.”
Angor nodded with a grim look.
It was a bad idea to use plane passageways where the dimensional energy was fickle. It seemed Madelyne was assuming the worst already.
The speaker in the pub heard Sennefer’s “introduction” and giggled in such an alluring way that most male creatures would surrender their bodies on the spot.
“It has been a thousand years since the last Grave Knight passed away. Since when did the Undying Brigade have human allies?”
The voice spoke those words using the perfect universal tongue and in a completely unassuming way. Sennefer found it difficult to tell any useful clues from it.
“The family members of Grave Knights did not join them in their mission. Instead, they stayed in the outer levels, waiting for their return. They had given birth to new clans and settlements in all these years, while we are currently cooperating with them.”
Sennefer assumed that the unknown speaker was friendly with the Undying Brigade and wished to achieve peace by using such an excuse.
“I see...” The plain voice came again. “You’re allied with the descendants of the Undying Brigade. Sure. So why are you here?”
“We want to take the remains of the warriors back and tell our allies that they’re now resting in peace.”
“Resting in peace, huh? How about you talk with ‘them’ right here?”
The peaceful air in the graveyard suddenly began to stir.
Dokibell sniffed around. “Something is moving under us.”
“Skeletons. A lot of them.” Brofen looked around them with a grim look. “They’re coming out.”
The dark ground of the graveyard slowly turned white as a giant swarm of skeletons crawled out of their resting places. This was not the end of it—following the skeletons, groups of armored knights emerged from their coffins and stared at the intruders using their glowing red eyes.
“They must be the elite fighters of the brigade—the Grave Knights,” expressed Brofen, a little panicked.
“I know that much! If you have time to speak the obvious, think of something to keep them away!” Madelyne stated.
The first thing the resurrected warriors remembered to do was to gaze at the human intruders with clear killing intent.
“What’s the meaning of this?” asked Sennefer, using a louder voice.
“You want to take them with you, no? Surely you must ask for their permission first?”
The voice in the pub began humming again. But instead of the great sadness, people sensed hostility this time.
The melody echoed across the graveyard, amplifying the dark energy of the undead soldiers by several folds.
...
“Humph. Too bad that I happen to hate humans,” a woman said from behind the bar counter, after finishing her “song”.
“Did you draw them to the necropolis just to kill them?” The speaker was the armored knight who entered the pub earlier, who was enjoying a glass of bright yellow liquid.
“I didn’t draw them. They found their way in themselves. Well, the energy of the necropolis is already leaking. I thought someone from the Demon Monastery would find us first, not human vagabonds.”
“... They weren’t lying though. My children did side with the humans.”
“So what? Half-demons shouldn’t care about what happened to their kin.”
...
A fight was about to break out.
Armies of skeletons were rushing to Sennefer and Dokibell with their weapons raised.
“These things aren’t strong, but there are too many!” Madelyne quickly ascertained their disadvantage. “Did the woman in the pub summon them? We won’t be able to protect all the apprentices at this rate.”
Brofen stepped up. “I shall keep the chapel safe. If there’s any need, I’ll send everyone into my alchemy workshop.”
Madelyne and Vifet nodded to Brofen and took positions to fend off the attacking skeletons on their own.
“Save your strength! The biggest enemy isn’t here yet!” Sennefer ordered.
These walking skeletons could not do anything to harm wizards. But on the other hand, four wizards couldn’t kill the skeletons fast enough either because these creatures could always come back up.
At first, Sennefer, Vifet, and Madelyne only tried to keep the enemies away by using minimal effort. Occasionally, there would be skeletons that slipped past them, who would then get slapped away by Dokibell. But when they saw that Angor had trapped a large number of skeletons inside an illusion, they all decided to follow Angor’s lead and herd more enemies that way.
However, there was a limit to how many of them Angor could contain in his illusion. He had to constantly repair the illusion as the skeletons tried to shake free, and he couldn’t keep this up forever.
The knights suddenly moved, causing their “minions” to obediently back away.
These knights used to be wizard-level half-demons in their former lives. After a quick assessment, the wizards reached the conclusion that they couldn’t afford to use their full effort against 15 wizard-level enemies and leave their backs open to further assaults.
“Retreat and find a way out of here!” Sennefer yelled. Since whoever was in the pub didn’t give her any chance for negotiation, they had no reason to stay.
They backtracked by following the original path while repelling all the pursuing skeletons, only to find that the edge of the graveyard was now blocked by the same light barrier they saw earlier at the pub.
All of their effort to break through it ended in vain. And each time someone tried a stronger attack, they would be hurting themselves.
A bit disheartened, Sennefer realized that the mighty aura she sensed from the pub must be coming from the woman who talked to her. And that woman didn’t intend to let them leave alive.
“What now?” Madelyne also realized what was going on. “Is it time for a plane passageway?”
This was a last-ditch move. A plane passageway in the Abyss Plane was very likely to send its travelers to unexpected danger. Even wizards wouldn’t be sure to survive what was waiting on the other side.
“An extremely powerful presence wants us dead... But why didn’t she come out and kill us herself? Is she toying with us?”
People glanced back at the approaching enemies and failed to think of any other way out.
“This leaves us no choice.” Sennefer sighed. “Let’s—”
“Wait.”
It was Angor who just interrupted them.
The wizards didn’t look pleased when an apprentice bothered them in such a dire situation. However, when thinking about Angor’s particular prestige, they chose to be patient for now.