Chapter 43
After the ride down, I would guess that we were four or five hundred feet below ground. It was cool, at least compared to the surface where they’d been lounging by the pool, but not enough to need more clothes.
Torches lit one after the other, fanning out from the entrance and illuminating the room beyond.
Set stepped aside, and I was left staring at a massive room with a number of large pyramids filling it, and in the center, there lay a small coffin whose lid slowly slid back before Ozzy pried himself free. The man groaned, as if he hadn't moved in weeks.
"Who goes there?" Ozzy said in a tired voice, only for his eyes to catch up with his brain.
I turned immediately to Set. "I thought you said he was dead."
The liar shrugged. "That's what we must say, lest the clan realize he's been entombed down here and decide to throw a fit over it," Set told me with a straight face.
"You mean those who don't particularly like your brand of leadership?" I asked.
Set shrugged. If my accusation bothered him, he didn't show it.
"Fuck, Bran, you have to get out of here now," Ozzy warned.
I held up a hand to stop him. "A lot has changed since you've been sequestered here."
I turned to the seven pyramids, getting the sense they were awake and listening. A small tingle of awareness brushed my senses. It was an incredibly delicate touch. "Are you all going to pretend to be asleep, or is one of you going to wake up and give me an answer?"
A voice spoke out. "I see no need to answer the rude interloper. However, my curiosity has been piqued as to why you've been brought down here by someone who was charged with managing the clan."
"Forgive me, Ancestors," Set said. "He threatened the clan, and I was in no position to defeat him without significant damage to the clan. However, down here, I assumed our enemy could be handled."
I turned, glaring daggers at Set for positioning me directly as an enemy, though I couldn't keep my attention off the bigger problems in the room for long.
"Your clan had a deal with me from when Ozzy was in charge.
It seems the change in leadership is causing that deal to be put into question.
To be perfectly honest, I find that unacceptable. "
These were the kind of people who sensed any weakness shown and would not give respect in return.
"If the clan no longer needs your services, then it's only right that we terminate any agreement," the voice said.
"Oh, but your clan was continuing to take my terms happily, until I pushed to ask where the return was for what I had already given.
" I paused, realizing the voice hadn't introduced himself, though clearly the younger Osiris recognized it. I’d bet money it was his father, the first by the name Osiris.
"Bran," both Ozzy and Osiris said at the same time, and Osiris’ inspection slammed against me, along with a handful of others, most like whoever else was buried down here.
While pushing off did little to measure my strength, these were people entirely unaccustomed to bringing people who were their equals or, dare I say, betters.
As their inspections all slammed against me, I shrugged them off as roughly as I could.
"Don't you know how incredibly rude it is to inspect someone?" I growled and shut them all down.
"Oh, this one might have a little bite," a female voice said from another pyramid.
"My name is Bran Heros, son of Elle Heros and Thorin Aegir," I told them.
"The mother is not familiar," another, more ancient voice, hummed. "However, Thorin Aegir, banished from the Borrsons, previously recognized as the brother of the current clan leader," it added, filling in the missing information.
"Some pedigree, even if a pitiful one," the voice I’d pegged as Osiris growled. "There's no need to entertain any attention toward him."
"No, you can just isolate yourselves from the world, right?" I said, with false cheer. "I'm sure the rest of the world will welcome you back with open arms when all is said and done. Isn't that how it usually goes for those who sat on the sidelines when others lost friends and family?”
“Do not lecture us!" Osiris snapped.
"I would never," I said sharply. "Just a simple reminder of how these situations tend to go."
"We are well aware of the way of the world. Your words are completely unnecessary,” the voice responded.
Ozzy was looking at me with pleading eyes, begging me not to pick this fight. Unfortunately for him, Set had already set me off.
"The agreement we made was for a share of information on our various territories. After all, my people and I are waging a war against the Demon Lord." I brought the conversation back to what I wanted to discuss.
"Oh, if you're waging a war, then you simply have no time to play with us now, do you?" the female voice chuckled.
I tilted my head. "Your sudden refusal of cooperation has given me a blind spot.
You are but a minor inconvenience. One I will clear if necessary.
However, of course, I had a lovely relationship with Ozzy, and I'd hate to throw it away so readily. But if the Ennead Clan are no longer going to participate, then I see no reason for your clan to stand at the end of the day.”
“I see you've devolved to threats!" Osiris boomed. "Threats you cannot follow through on!"
I crossed my arms and looked at the pyramids, wondering exactly how they worked. When I inspected them, they gave me nothing, which made me question whether they actually housed these ancestors or if something else was going on.
"Please, Ancestors, on behalf of my previous relationship with Bran, I ask that you allow him to depart.
He and his people are doing the world a much-needed service, removing demons across the globe.
Let him go in honor of what our clan was founded to do.
We should not attack them, even if we have chosen neutrality to protect our own. " Ozzy bowed to the pyramids.
"Neutrality is acceptance of the horrors that the demons commit," I said sharply. "I just came from the Amazon where, apparently, the Demon Lord had seeded his soul into thousands upon thousands of people, only to harvest them in one massive ritual."
"While the story is a tragedy, it is none of our concern," a voice answered.
"Good." I activated Blood Boil and reached over, grasping Set by the throat and lifting him up. "Then you no longer need any strength here." I squeezed.
Set grasped at my hand, trying to pry my fingers off, but he wasn’t able to do more than flail as his throat was crushed.
Still, there was no reaction. I squeezed further, proving to them I would end Set. Finally, there was a twitch from the largest temple, a single stone shifting.
"You will release him," the voice boomed, and I didn't so much as pause.
"Just as you feel you no longer have to participate in the world, I do not believe you have the strength to stop me," I answered.
The temple twitched, then exploded, as a decrepit old man floated out, his eyes set in a face fixed in what must have been a permanent scowl of disappointment.
"You will regret testing us for the remainder of your short life," the man said, only for Almeria to step forward.
"You aren't nearly strong enough to face my husband." Almeria said the last with a faint blush dusting her cheeks. She must have taken my earlier comment to heart. I simply couldn't watch Set disrespect her as he had without making him regret it, at least a little bit.
"Oh, and who are you?" the man who I could only assume was Osiris, Ozzy and Set's father, asked.
"I am Almeria, princess of my people, those with the blood of the dragon, who have slept under the sea for thousands of years, training to kill the demons when they finally appeared in this world.
But as we have come out into this world, we find few who remain loyal to our cause.
We fight, unlike you cowards, hiding in your crypt.
Perhaps you pray the demons will respect the dead and ignore you, but they will not. "
"I do not know who you are, but the clans know of no such clan," he answered.
"A few too many have tried that line for me to even humor you.
And besides… a princess is nothing compared to a pharaoh.
" He held his hands out, and the ground quaked as skeletal limbs clawed from the walls, the necropolis's base coming alive with a sudden and dangerous, cacophonous clinking of bones.
"Get her," Osiris ordered.
Almeria stood rooted in the center of the oncoming maelstrom, arms crossed, her face set in a less-than-impressed scowl. "I do hope you have better than a few bones to rattle and can put some actual weight behind your words."
Almeria flexed her hands as blue scales grew and coated her up to her elbows, dashing artfully across her cheeks.
"Your display means nothing." Osiris floated, lifting his hands high.
Skeletons surged from the walls, rushing and grasping at Almeria, who simply spun, a clawed hand raking through them and shattering a dozen figures before she jumped for Osiris himself.
The pharaoh threw his hand forward as limbs caught her mid-leap, trying to hold her back.
Even without her full transformation, her strength appeared enhanced enough to break through the simple bones that had blocked her.
I knew the necropolis had far more dangerous reserves.
The Ennead had a long history of collecting the corpses of some of the greatest warriors in historic times and planting them in the necropolis with great care, along with a number of enhancements.
The skeletons were enough to stop Almeria's charge, and dozens more skeletons jumped free from the walls to fight her. She batted the simple warriors aside and tried to charge again. The whole time, I watched with my arms crossed, ready to interfere if anyone on their side stepped into the fight.
Instead, Ozzy slid close to me. "Bran, while I appreciate your effort, the ancestor is still playing with her. Perhaps if you apologize and leave, there's still some hope to recover."
"Set has wasted any goodwill," I said, waving away his efforts. "And besides, I do not fear your ancestors, nor the necropolis."
Ozzy did a double-take. "Perhaps you don't understand the extent of what you're saying."
I gave him a look. "I understand plenty. I think it's your ancestors who don't yet understand the danger building in this world."
By then, Almeria had continued to become more draconic. Scales rippled past her elbows up to her shoulders as she threw herself forward again, this time getting dangerously close to Osiris. It was only the fact that a barrier had popped up around him that stopped her charge short.
Almeria frowned, kicked off the ground, and shattered the barrier as a dozen more skeletons rushed her. Osiris still stood calmly with his arms crossed, as if the barrier was but one of many defenses he had erected.
"Do you believe she can win?" Osiris asked me.
"I believe she's strong enough to fight her own battles," I answered quickly.
"You risk her life for pride," one of the other pyramids spoke.
"She has chosen to fight, and I will back her wholeheartedly. Though I can't say you or the necropolis will be able to stop me from extracting her if I think this has gone on far enough," I told them.
"What legendary hubris." Osiris threw his arms to the side, floating up to the very center of the room. As he reached the middle, his body simply separated into seven pieces — head, arms, and legs separating from his torso, before the final, seventh piece became clear.
I groaned. Of course an old man would be obsessed with something like that.
"Fighting me is the same as fighting seven pieces at once," he told us. All seven pieces swarmed about Almeria. She stopped, her eyes tracking the most grotesque of the seven.
"To think you'd bring that out with my husband in the room." She moved in a blur, and that piece disappeared, a red splash across one of the seven temples.
Osiris screamed like a slaughtered pig. "How dare you!" he howled.
Almeria paused and buffed her nails, which happened to be quite long, with some of her draconic traits pushed forward. "Don't blame me. You're the one who whipped it out at an inappropriate time," she told him.
Osiris howled, and the smear of blood pulled off the temple, immediately beginning to reconstitute itself.
"I am immortal. I am the never-ending, the god of death itself!
" he screamed at the top of his lungs, only for Almeria to spray a gush of water through the blood trying to gather back up, disrupting it.
Then her rapier found one of his legs and sliced it into another dozen pieces.
Even I stared on with a frown.
Almeria was strong, but this was Osiris.
He was supposed to be the great ancestor of this necropolis, able to bring out its full potential and squash any opponent who came against the Ennead clan.
The Ennead in my past life had only fallen after a massive demon army had sieged it for months on end—at least, according to all the reports I'd heard.
I couldn't help but frown at the current lack of strength.
"You're wasting your energy," Osiris continued to mock her, both destroyed limbs already trying to reform themselves.
The two arms holding a scepter and a crook flew toward Almeria, swinging.
Yet even then it was clear Osiris was a caster, and while he had some strength, melee was clearly not his forte. Even Ozzy seemed perplexed.
"Join me!" Osiris boomed, and the other temples shuddered.
I stepped forward hard enough to make the room shudder. "And if you think you're able to fight my wife on such unfair terms, I would be happy to correct that misconception."
Osiris huffed and blustered, pausing as each of his limbs reformed. In this small delay, Almeria stood ready to fight.
"Father, please." Ozzy stepped forward.
"No. He cannot be allowed to leave here," Osiris answered.
Warriors pulled themselves up from the ground, each carrying highly decorative blades, and I squared myself up for a fight. These looked like they'd be strong enough to make it a fight worth remembering.