Blood Bonds

Chapter Eight

Maw of the Beast - Part Two

Leather gauntlet, a new pair of boots, and a brigandine vest. That was what Louise had gotten from Isabella's armory. It wasn't much, definitely not as comfortable as a dragonscale armor, but it would serve its purpose. She just wished it stopped scratching her skin every time the carriage went up and down.

Seated next to her, Kirche was trying to fix the neck of her own armor. "How can you move in all this?"

"You walk on heels all day long and this is what you complain about?"

"Maybe I'd like this more if it helped my butt stand out more."

"You're enough of an ass already, Kirche."

"Hey!"

The only thing she was lacking now was a ranged option.

"Everything in order, Miss Louise?" Guiche asked her, perhaps noticing how she kept glancing at her empty hand.

"Yes, just missing my crossbow." That one crossbow had served her well for a long time and had proved its worth more than once. It wouldn't be as effective against the undead without exploding bolts, but she at least wanted to have the option.

"Allow me." From underneath his seat, Guiche pulled out a trunk which he opened to reveal it was full of handguns and their holsters. "Lady Agnes gave these to use on a 'special occasion' as she said, and I think this very much qualifies. Now let me teach you how to load them."

"Thank you." She picked one up and stared at it incredulously. It was so heavy. Heavier than she expected. It'd also have only one bullet. A bullet that needed a thunderous explosion to launch. It wasn't something she'd want to carry when wanting to go unnoticed but… she guess it would serve well in case of an emergency.

Kirche inspected them like a cat inspects its food. "Hey, can I get one?"

Guiche and Louise snapped up at Kirche. "No!"

Kirche pouted. "Why not?"

"I didn't train you with it," Louise said quickly, "and I don't want you shooting your own foot."

"Oh, fine." Kirche said, begrudgingly accepting Louise's words. "But that's what you say, what about him?"

With a blush, Guiche coughed into his fist as he averted his eyes. "We're at the objective. Let's get down to business."

As they descended from their carriage, they were soon joined by Amethyst, Daphne, and Charlotte, the last riding in on her dragon Sylphid and leading the platoon of knights. Guiche pulled out the copy of the plans they had found and gathered everyone around.

Louise hummed, staring at the map. "Now, how are we getting in?" If they assumed that the construction crew was close to finding the vampire's lair, then it should be at the end of the tunnel. The problem there was that all that part had been completely buried by the collapse.

"Can't you just make a hole with your magic?" Of course Kirche offered the direct approach.

Guiche shook his head. "Even if I specialized in Earth-Shaping, we're talking about several tons of debris here. We'd need several square-class Earth Mages to clear it if we want to make it fast."

It was obvious to Louise that wasn't going to be an option, but that was why they had taken the maps of the sewers with them. "Then we move from below."

"Yes, I was thinking the same thing. If we assume that the crew that built the sewer system was working here-"

"Then they found the crypts here. Behind this wall."

"And if the cistern was about to be located here, then the entrance to the crypts should be behind this tunnel." The sewers ran parallel and below the main habitational blocks. "It's away from the collapse so it should have survived."

Under the light casted by their wands they found what they were looking for: a storm drain close to the tunnel's exist. It was big enough for two or three people to crawl in at the same time, but was blocked by an iron grate.

"We need to pull that out." Guiche said, kneeled next to the grate. "I can loosen the anchoring points and then Miss Amethyst and Miss-"

Ignoring Guiche's instructions, one of Isabella's knights walked in front of the group, closed his massive hands around the grate bars, and pulled. With a thunderous sound of shattering stone and bending metal, the grate was ripped from the mortar. Then the knight just tossed it aside before returning to the formation.

"Or we could just do that."

The first ones to go in were Louise and her aunts, their feet splashing as they landed in the water below.

"Kyu?" Sylphid looked in distress as her small master left, the dragon's body too big to follow.

"Stay here." Charlotte calmed her down. "We'll be back soon."

The rest of the group then followed, the knights trailing behind, barely able to fit inside the sewers with their bulky frames.

To pierce the darkness Kirche pulled one of her swords out and coated it in flames. "I was expecting this to smell worse."

Guiche followed suit. A short chant and his bronze rose started glowing with a soft light. "This branch was used to drain the sewage coming from the 4-K section. With it no longer being inhabited…"

"Ah."

They started the march, keeping their eyes on every shadow waiting for an attack. But the only semblance of life they found was the odd rat fleeing from them into the cracks of the walls.

Stopping at a juncture, Guiche took a moment to check the stability of the walls. "I must say that this is a fantastic work of masonry. It's in dire need of maintenance but just look at the termination!"

"Do we really have the time to stop to admire the scenery?" Louise asked with a raised eyebrow.

"There's always time to admire a work of beauty, my dear. Be it in the form of a beautiful girl like my Montmorency, or an exemplary architectural work like this tunnel that we're exploring."

Kirche walked up to Louise and whispered into her ear: "I wonder if he already explored Monmon's 'tunnel'."

Louise almost choked on her own spit, forcing out a noise that made Guiche look at her in confusion. "What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just Kirche being Kirche."

The party continued forwards and in just minutes they reached their target.

"It should be around here." Following a corner, they were met with a dead-end, but what came immediately to attention was the change in masonry at the end of the section. The grey and smooth walls of the sewers gave place to red stone and rough edges which ended abruptly in a brick wall.

Guiche approached it and passed his wand over its surface. "There's something behind this." Immediately he turned to the knights. "I'll request you don't intervene this time as I don't want us to make any noise."

The knights didn't answer. Didn't so much as speak or move. Eerily, all they did was just stand there.

"Er… thank you." Turning back to the brick wall, Guiche focused and started chanting. Then he stopped. "This is heavily reinforced. Are any of you good at earth magic?"

Louise got ready to cut through the wall with her Void magic, but Charlotte moved faster.

"Alchemy and transmutation." The Gallian princess explained moving next to him. Together they worked in tandem, using their magic to weaken the structure of the wall. The bricks started shaking as the mortar liquified under the power of the two mages.

The wall fell, and revealed the corridor behind it.

"What is this?"

The hallways were ancient, not natural but carved into the cliffs by human hand and magic. The floor and ceiling were of chiseled stone, and the walls had nooks gouged out to accommodate the dead. Hundreds of them. The hallway continued far beyond what their lights could reach. And wherever they set their eyes, they saw death. Bones had been used to decorate the nooks, forming macabre frames, and above their heads white lines danced across the ceiling like a painting. The Founder's Star was on display there, made of femurs with skulls at each vertex. And next to it was a Valkyrie, with the skeleton of a child and wings made of hands.

"No surprises that the church closed this place down, right Louise?" Kirche asked her companion, but she didn't answer. "Louise?"

The Tristanian remained perfectly still.

She looked at the dark hallways and the dusty bones. The dry air brought memories of restless death, of poisoned fangs and pain. Of Farengar almost dying because she'd been too weak to help him.

She remembered her cowering in fear next to the old Wizard while the dead tried to break their way in.

What would have happened if that door had failed to protect them?

"Louise?" A voice called for her again. Kirche and her aunts were looking at her with concern in their eyes.

"I'm fine," She replied, her voice cold and hard. Walking past Guiche and Charlotte, she took lead of the party. "Skeletons and zombies don't make sound, don't even breathe, so they're perfect for ambushes. Undeads that are animated I can see, but those that aren't I can't, so stay away from the walls. And if you see one with a weapon close, break it's skull just to be safe."

With Aura Whisper active she moved on, further into the catacombs. It was like returning to a familiar place, one she hated and wanted to forget. Her eyes scanned every corner, every shadow, every detail searching for danger. She searched for traps and tripwires, knowing that any moment now they'd rise.

There was the sound of rushing feet followed by a hand on her shoulder. Through instinct alone her hands jumped to her sword, and in the blink of an eye the blade was resting a hair's breadth away from Kirche's throat.

"You fucking idiot! Don't sneak up on me!"

Kirche gave her that awkward smile she gave whenever she did something she shouldn't. "So, mmh… Something you want to talk about?"

"Not really." Louise put her sword away while she tried to push the memories back.

Even after all that time, Bleak Falls Barrow remained fresh in her mind.

The winding halls.

The stale air.

The walking dead.

She should have been expecting this! She had been told that they were going into an underground catacomb for Founder's sake! She should have been ready but she had simply failed to account for her reaction to this. It was always the same, no matter how many times she ventured into one, the sight of a Nordic tomb put her on edge. She hated how weak and useless that made her feel.

She had been close to death many times after that, but Bleak Falls…

That one had been special.

There was a booming sound and when Louise turned at its source she saw the fist of one of the knights rising from the skeleton it had just shattered.

"A sword next to that one." Charlotte explained.

Good. That was good.

Louise nodded approvingly. They were doing as she told them to do.

They ventured forth, the silence broken by the sound of marching feet and the cracking of the odd skull. Louise found herself admiring the competence of Isabella's knights. They fulfilled their duty without complaint or question. She'd like to work with them again.

The catacombs branched out. They weren't a continuous corridor of funerary niches but also contained side-corridors, stairs leading up and down, and every so many steps there were places of rest. Some of them were just that, open rooms with some benches for people to use, but there were also rooms with the remains of beds, kitchens, and what might have once been a library. Now they were all empty, and the only evidence of human activity that remained were scattered pieces of wood or fabric.

"How many people lived here?" Kirche asked, checking with the tip of her foot what looked to be discarded cutlery.

"I'm more interested in how many were buried here," was Louise's reply. More bodies meant more enemies. Would there be traps? Ustengrav had been full of those.

The catacombs continued, expanding into long labyrinthian extensions. She made a mental calculation of how many bodies there might've been down there, and she didn't like the result.

Eventually, the morbid monotony of entombed dead ended, opening into a massive, cathedral-like chamber. "Look at this place!" Guiche gasped in amazement.

The cathedral had been dug into the stone, the ceiling so high that their lights could barely reach it. The walls had been carved with the images of saints and holy symbols, with both the altar and benches having been crafted of the same rocks they had extracted from there. And like the rest of the catacombs, it was saturated in death. Skulls adorned every corner and shattered bones littered the floors. There was even the image of a priest behind the altar, dressed in robes and made using the bones of the faithful. Less than a savior, he looked like the personification of death.

That made her chuckle.

She had seated at the table with Death once. That image there was not Death.

She spent a moment staring at it. A moment too long, she realized, when someone pulled at her sleeve.

"Hey, Louise?" Kirche asked, glancing fearfully at the ceiling.

"Yes?"

"Where are we going?"

Louise raised an eyebrow. "To the vampire's lair, isn't that obvious?"

"Yeah, but, like… do you know where it is?"

Now that was a valid question, even if it had an equally obvious answer: "Of course not. We'll need to explore the catacombs until we find traces of activity."

"Ah. And what will those traces look like?"

She shrugged. "Most probably like zombies rising to attack us."

"Oh." Kirche said, tapping her foot against the ground. Then she turned around looking at the place they had come from. "Hey, and another question too: do you know the way out of here?"

"Over there." The reply made Kirche jump, surprised that it came from several sources. Louise, Daphne, and Guiche all pointed to the south-west, Charlotte doing the same but without uttering a word.

Kirche followed the line of their fingers with clear confusion written on her face. "How do you know that?"

"Memory for me." Louise explained. "I spent so much time in underground ruins that a good sense of direction became needed for survival."

Guiche puffed his chest. "I'm surrounded by my element, Miss Zerbst! I'm like a fish in the water!"

Charlotte just tapped the floor to make a magical mark appear.

"And from our part, we carry these." From one of her pockets, Daphne pulled out what looked to be a pencil made of red-colored wax. "We use them to leave marks to trace our way back." Just at that moment Louise noticed that there was indeed a red line next to the entrance they had used.

"Oh, that's convenient:" Kirche nodded with a thumb against her chin. "So, where should we go next?"

Louise crossed her arms. By her mental map of the place, they should have been somewhere around the west of the collapse, meaning that they had to keep moving east. "Let's continue-" She raised her hand to point at their next destination when the sound of Amethyst's voice distracted her.

"Louise! Charlotte!"

Her aunts were standing at the entrance of the hallways they came in through, alarm on their faces.

"What's going-!" Louise stopped, frozen, as she stared at a stone wall standing right where a doorway should've been. Standing right where they had come in. "There... there shouldn't be a wall here."

Charlotte confirmed her suspicions when she tapped a spot on the floor with her staff, revealing a line of glowing light. The line marked the path they had taken and went underneath that wall.

"How did you know?" Louise asked.

"Vampiric hearing. We heard the sound of grinding stone and came to investigate."

Guiche pointed his wand at the wall, the petals of his metallic rose alight as he chanted a spell. "There's no magic at play here. There's a mechanism inside the wall that allows this door to fall. The hallway is still on the other side, just blocked."

There was something in that explanation that was missing.

"I didn't see any pressure plates on the way in. If there's no magic, how did this door fall?" And as Louise said those words, her surroundings lit up. It was like the arrival of the night sky, with dozens of spots of light coming into view under the power of the Aura Whisper. The difference was that these weren't astral bodies but enemies that were waking up. "We're surrounded!"

"Defensive positions!" Guiche barked as Isabella's knights formed a protective circle. And following the light, the sound started. It was a screeching of bone against rock and rotten muscles coming back to life. "How far away are they?"

"Very close."

They could hear caskets break open from the inside as more bodies joined the army of the undeath. The spots of light had turned into hundreds and Louise could see them crowding around the northern hallway, but there was something about their movement that she didn't like. "Guiche! Are there any other tunnels around us?"

The boy widened his eyes, quickly realizing what Louise meant with that. He aimed his wand down and casted a spell that washed over the floor. "Yes! Behind the altar!"

Just at their back. Kind of obvious if she thought about it.

"Fus! Ro!" Her Thu'um cracked the wall, revealing a side corridor that they hadn't been aware of, wide enough for two or three carriages to roll in side by side. "They'll be coming from there!"

As one, the knights switched their position, forming a spear wall blocking that entrance.

The sound grew closer with the moaning of the undeath echoing through the catacombs. Louise could already imagine them with their empty eyes, armed with rusty swords and protected with the armors of the Nords of old.

No. This- this wasn't Skyrim.

Guiche made a flourish, scattering half a dozen petals of bronze that grew into empty shells of plate armor, animated by his will.

Light blossomed at Louise's back, forcing her sensitive eyes to squint in the gloom. But not even the magical light could pierce the darkness of the catacombs. It was as if an oily miasma had coated the surfaces, swallowing the light that they cast on it.

"I think we found those traces we were looking for." Kirche said next to Louise, her flame sword radiating a comforting heat that made her skin shiver in the cold of the underground. "Creepy, isn't it?"

Creepy? Yes, she'd have to agree. The scratching of bone and decaying flesh against rock. The sound of bodies limping and crawling through the floor, followed by the moan of the restless deceased.

It was creepy alright.

It was just like Bleak Falls Barrows.

And at the end there would be a Dragon Priest leading the charge.

She still remembered the first one she fought. The grey, dry skin. The empty eyes. The sheer aura of wrongness that seemed to follow wherever they went like a foul stench.

She eventually learnt how to break them. How to tear them limb by limb.

"Louise, are you alright?" Daphne asked, probably noticing her stiff posture and heavy breaths.

"Peachy." She answered, reading her sword with her teeth bore like a feral animal.

And then they saw the horde. It was like a torrent of putrid water pouring through the tunnel, eyes alight with necrotic energy. There were hundreds of them. A single mass of broken bodies with thorn flesh and exposed bones. It was even difficult to tell where one body ended and the other started.

"Hold the line!" Guiche snapped, wand flicking through the air in a well-practised flourish. In front of the knights, the ground rumbled and ruptured as thorny vines of stone sprouted in a protective line. "Don't let them get inside the cathedral!"

Guiche's plan was reasonable. Smart. Intelligent. Create a choke point. Funnel the enemy in one by one. Rob them of their numerical advantage and make it difficult for them to move in the narrow space.

Louise didn't care.

"Su! Grah! Dun!" Her muscles tensed with energy, pushed beyond human limits, and with a bellowing roar she charged in.

Someone shouted at her back. Maybe at her, maybe not. For a brief moment she heard her aunt's voices before they were swallowed by Louise's own cry.

She smashed against the enemy line with the force of a raging dragon. A skull cracked under her booth and a body was sliced in two with a single swing of her blade. Three more bodies hit the ground. Then six. Eight. Soon she stopped counting.

Her blade danced over her head as she pushed on, cutting body after body until she found herself surrounded by the never-ending roth.

The death didn't feel pain, didn't bleed. There was no point in aiming for the vitals if there were no vitals to strike. And so there was no need for grace here, only for speed and violence.

There was no room to move, and so she'd keep cutting and cutting until there were no more enemies in front of her.

Her Void-infused sword severed an arm, the spine, and then the other arm as it went through, parting the flesh and burning the magic that animated the draugr.

They didn't stop coming, but she killed them just as fast.

By the corner of her eye, she saw an arm reaching for her.

She slashed it.

A jaw.

She smashed it.

Dozens of hands clawed at her, but she was no longer there and with a quick swing of her sword five more bodies had gone to the ground.

She could no longer see the walls as her vision was dominated by the draugrs. It didn't matter. She'd kill them all the same.

If she had been this powerful back then, then the Barrows, Skuldafn, and Labyrinthian would have been very different.

She raised her sword to hit the enemy to the left but it was no longer there, its body having been torn to ribbons by a clawed hand.

Her surroundings opened up as Amethyst and Daphne joined the fray, forcing the enemies to split their attention between the three.

There was no need for them to be there! She didn't need their help. She only needed to keep killing.

By the corner of the eye, she saw Daphne advancing in front of her to engage one of the draugrs. Louise aimed the pistol and pulled the trigger, blowing the top of the creature's head off and stealing the kill.

It was a perfect shot but what she'd fail to account for had been the recoil. The pistol sprang out of her grip, twisting her fingers and making Louise flinch in pain.

In that moment of pause Amethyst tried to reach for her, but Louise ignored her as she pushed on killing the enemies that had lunged at her in her moment of weakness.

Was she being petty?

Absolutely.

But she still felt angry and frustrated, and this helped her vent.

Soon Louise lost sight of her aunts once more as the wall of draugrs reformed around her.

It mattered little. She'd show them who she was and force them to accept how she was.

And then she felt it rather than knew. A loud crack cut through the guttural howls of draugr and she stumbled as she lost her footing. She had a split second to witness how the tiles of the floor fell one by one into the dark abyss below, before she joined them.

There had been a pit trap there and she had stepped on it without realizing it.

Now that was just embarrassing.

Behind the spear wall, Kirche rammed her swords into the chest of a still-twitching ghoul. In the end, she hadn't seen much action after Louise jumped ahead. The horde had focused on Louise, and that had left the knights free to slowly advance and crush the splintered groups that had been left in her wake. Kirche herself had only executed a couple of ghouls, those lucky ones that had managed to evade the knight's glaives, and later their trampling boots.

Seriously, she didn't understand why Guiche had been so pissy about it. She was doing them a favor!

And then Daphne and Amethyst screamed. "Louise!"

Kirche straightened up. Had something happened to Louise? No, that couldn't be possible. Louise was the strongest person in Halkeginia, she had to be fine.

But where was she?

The knights' massive frames blocked her view. She tried to peek through the gaps in the formation but the only thing she saw were the ghouls that still remained, and amongst them Louise's aunts that were clawing through them to finish their niece's job.

The one missing was Louise. There were no traces of her sword or pink hair.

Kirche took her concern and pushed it back against the corner of her mind, together with all the random things that she didn't want to think about because they only brought pain. That way she could not care and enjoy the moment. Like she always did.

Louise had been lost, but she'd be back, right? She was insanely strong and there was no reason to think she wouldn't return to her.

The group marched on, the wall of spears hacking ghouls to pieces while Guiche, Charlotte, and Kirche finished the survivors off.

Kirche would have kept count of how many each of them had killed but come on! There was no way any of them would get even close to Louise's number.

After a moment it was over and the tunnel had been brought under their control. Filth and dirt clung to Kirche's clothes but beyond that she felt fine, standing in clear contrast with the knights who were covered from head to toe in mummified flesh and entrails. That image made her realize how much her nose itched with the dust that they had raised.

Now she just needed to see Louise and everything would be perfect.

Further thoughts were interrupted by Amethyst's alarmed voice. "Guiche, come here! Help us dig! Louise fell through!"

Kirche's heart skipped a beat.

The earth had opened up like a hungry maw to gobble Louise down. And the worst part was that, as far as she could see, the hole had collapsed on itself and the way to Louise had been covered in rocks.

Guiche approached the blockade and scanned it with his wand. "There's a lot of space on the other side. Also straight paths and smooth walls. This must lead to a lower level."

Kirche released the air she didn't know she'd been holding.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Help us here!" The sisters dropped to their knees and started ripping at the rock.

Their panic was an exaggeration. Yes, Kirche liked exaggerating but this was Louise! She was fine. She was half-dragon, half-vampire, half-void-mage, and half a lot of other stuff she couldn't even name! And no, she didn't give a crap that was most probably mathematically incorrect! "Hey, girls, relax."

"Relax?!" Amethyst hissed, baring her fangs. "Louise is trapped down there, she needs help! Guiche, can the knights dig?"

Guiche stared down at the aunts, jaw tensed. He shook his head. "No."

"No?!"

His face hardened, any uncertainty vanishing in an instant. "The enemy knows we're here and we have no idea what's down there. I won't risk this entire operation to rescue one person."

Kirche eyed the boy- no, he wasn't a boy anymore. Had he always been this assertive?

"Are you seriously talking about abandoning her?"

"Of course not!" he snapped. He glanced at his Valkyries. Several had missing limbs and one was reduced to a pile of scrap. With a swipe of his wand, he dispelled them, the bronze flower petals a stark contrast against the bleak grey stone. Another gesture and they fluttered back to his wand once more. "If there's a lower level then there must be another way to reach it. We might meet again further on."

Amethyst shook her head. "I don't like this. I don't like this at all."

"I'm not asking you to like it!" Wow, he sounded angry. "I'm asking you to do it because that's the only thing we can do right now."

"Really girls, I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill." Kirche added, planting her hand on her waist.

"How can you be so calm? Don't you care?"

Care? Of course she cared! Even when there was no reason to do so. Even when caring felt like being kicked in the gut again, and again, and again.

"I trust Louise, is all." She replied, indignant at the remark. "Besides, come on! If something down there would threaten her, it would trample over us no problem. So let's keep going and we'll find her along the way."

That's what would happen. They'd find Louise again and everything would be okay.

"Fine. Fine!" Daphne snapped, standing up. "And once we find the vampire behind this, I'll rip out their throats."

"See? That's the spirit!" Kirche chirped with a side smile.

With that out the way, they marched on down the hallway of ghoul corpses. Down and down until they reached a left turn into what looked to be an older section of the catacombs. The stone became worn, eroded by water and by time. Pronounced carvings became blurred and shallow. The floor was so filled with cracks and crevices that what might have been flagstone flooring looked like cobblestone. Brimiric symbols were replaced by pagan drawings of heretical gods with animal heads.

The only constant was the frequent attacks.

"So, how old do you think this place is?" Kirche asked between gasps for air as she finished bisecting a ghoul that had tried to grab her. Her muscles were itching and her fingers were aching. This would have been so much easier if she could just hurl fireballs but 'smoke and fire can be deadly for us in an enclosed space' had been what Louise had told her. It was kind of amazing that Kirche could remember the things she told her. That was one of the reasons why she liked her so much. Sometimes Kirche felt like Louise was the only one who understood how she thought.

"Thousands of years. Pre-Romalian Reformation." Charlotte answered, freezing several ghouls to the wall.

"That sounds old." Ancient history had never been of interest to her, but making small chat with her friend was always nice. A body rose from its original resting place, but it was slow and Kirche easily rammed her sword into its chest. She pulled it out and in a swift motion cleaned the sweat of her brow, but what she couldn't shake off was the feeling that something was wrong.

The initial attack had been a well-coordinated one. Kirche's group had been trapped and then the vampire had sent his minions to attack them from the back. That had been a smart move! One that hadn't been repeated. The ghouls no longer amassed in great numbers or showed any intelligence in the way they attacked.

Maybe the vampire had run out of bodies to throw at them? Kirche wasn't convinced. "Hey, does anyone else feel this is too easy?"

"I noticed that too." In a swift motion, Amethyst tore the head of an enemy out of its neck. "A vampire, even a powerful one, can only reach so far. If they aren't focused on us…" She let her words linger, not willing to complete the idea.

Kirche did it for her. "That's my Louise!" That meant that she was still fighting.

"I don't think you quite understand how dangerous a vampire can be," replied Daphne, glaring at Kirche.

Kirche scoffed. "And I don't think you fully understand how dangerous Louise can be! Seriously, you just-"

Kirche was interrupted when a sudden flare of light revealed the massive chamber they had just walked into. It was big enough to accommodate a noble's manor inside, and had four great pillars that supported a vaulted ceiling.

The knights jumped into formation, creating a defensive circle around the group. Kirche herself brandished her sword, peering through the cracks in the protective shields waiting for something to jump out and attack them.

The light died, bathing the room in shadow once more.

And then the light returned. Flickering. Pulsing. Light then dark, light then dark.

It made Kirche's heart jump into her throat. But nothing happened. Nothing jumped out. Nobody was swallowed up by the ground. There was nothing in there except for the steady hum that filled the chamber.

Looking around, Kirche wondered what the source of the light might be. She found it in the magical lamps that hanged from the walls. Their modern, polished metal casings created a sharp contrast with the worn stone walls.

"At ease." Guiche ordered, breaking away from the group.

One of the aunts reached for him. "Lord Gramont, what are you doing?"

He ignored them, focusing on one of the nearby lamps. The boy passed a finger over the surface of the lamp, removing the thick coat of dust that covered it. He then removed the crystal and smashed it against the wall, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. "No one has been here in months."

Kirche approached to see better what he had done. "How can you tell?"

"My brother specializes in crystal magic and I ended up learning a thing or two during our family meetings." He explained, dusting his hands off. "For this model of lamp to have enough energy stored to still work, but for it to be blinking like this, it means that the last time it received any maintenance was at least two months ago. Three tops."

Slowly the knights broke formation and dispersed around the room.

Kirche scratched her chin. That date was important. "Two or three? Are you sure of that?"

"Yes, I-" His eyes widened. "The collapse. It fits with the time of the collapse."

As they continued deeper into the chamber, into an adjacent room, they were met with several pieces of art. There were statues and tapestries, paintings, and various other little bits and bobs that looked old and certainly valuable.

"Wait, I know this one." Guiche said checking the signature of one of the paintings. "This Michelin was lost at the fires of Prague. Or at least was believed lost."

For her part, Kirche had found a piece of translucent fabric that was incredibly soft to the touch. It would make for a nice nightgown. "Seems like our vampire is quite the collector. How much would you say they'd pay for it?"

"Depending on the collector, a whole lot. But I don't know about selling it. I'd want to keep it."

Now that sounded like an idea! "Then do! This is just like Tarbes. Speaking of, what did you do with your cut of the loot from that?"

"Well, I actually followed Miss Vallière's suggestion and-"

"I have bodies here!" It was Daphne.

The nobles dashed to a room further back where they found an image that made Guiche recoil. "Fuck."

There were dozens of them. They had been haphazardly put together into a pile that reached to Kirche's shoulder. The image wasn't one dissimilar to what they had already seen in the catacombs, but what shocked them was that many of those corpses were recent. They were dressed in modern clothes and there was a circle of dried blood underneath them.

It was the dry air of the underground cave that had preserved them.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Kirche noticed something that she recognized. "Wait, I think I know these people."

"You do?"

One of the corpses sported a piece of jewelry that she had seen in a drawing some days ago. "Well, heard about them at least. Remember how Louise and I were looking for missing people? Some of them resemble the descriptions we were given. Like that one with the collar." His parents had insisted that he had been wearing that the day of his disappearance.

"At least we can give their families some closure." Guiche said, rubbing his chin before turning towards Amethyst. "Any idea why the vampire would put the bodies here?"

"Maybe to make more servants." She grabbed the arm of one of them, which easily detached turning the brittle skin into dust. "But these are already weeks old. If you want strong ghouls you need fresher bodies."

Guiche nodded. "More evidence telling us that the vampire abandoned this place months ago. I don't like this..."

"The plot thickens!" Kirche said rubbing her hands.

Now, if the vampire wasn't there, where could it be?

That was when the entire chamber rumbled with the sound of something heavy smashing into the ground.

"What is that?!"

Then it hit again, and the ground shook.

"Where is it coming from?!"

"I don't know!" Kirche yelled. "Louise was the one with the magic eyes!"

It hit for a third time and a crack formed in one of the walls. The group entered defensive positions, aiming their weapons at the newly revealed passageway. The crack grew and the walls collapsed. The dust blocked their sight, but there was the sound of someone coughing, and then a figure came through. She was disheveled, covered in dust and grime, and her brigandine had been torn to ribbons. "There you are."

"Louise!" The aunts rushed to her, locking her in a tight hug.

The Tristanian's face grew red under their strength. "You-are-crushing-me!"

Relief flashed across Guiche's face, but only for a moment. A second later it was replaced by neutral professionalism. "I'm glad to have you back, Miss Vallière, but later we'll talk about why you broke formation."

Kirche didn't join in their celebration. Had it really been this easy, this simple to meet her again? Yes, of course it had been! What kind of stupid question was that?

With a frown of concentration, Kirche walked to Louise and poked her in her cheek. "How can we be sure that you're our Louise?"

The sisters' eyes widened in disbelief, before letting go and taking a step back.

Thankfully Louise didn't attack nor turn into a monster -not like she wasn't one already-, and just snorted at Kirche. "Well, at least this confirms that my training wasn't a complete waste of time on you."

And that was when Kirche's heart started beating normally again. "It's her." And now it was the Germanian's turn to lock her in a hug. "Happy to have you back."

Shaking up, Louise broke free. "Yeah, yeah, happy to be here, too." One day Kirche would manage to have Louise hug her back.

Guiche watched the exchange with a raised eyebrow. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit lost here. What did I miss?"

"Vampires are shapeshifters." Amethyst explained, trying desperately to stay professional. "Miss Zerbst was pointing out, rightfully so, that we let our emotions take the better of us in this situation."

Now that made Kirche laugh. "Yeah, you have been doing that a lot around here." She turned to Louise. "Talking about that, what took you so long?"

Louise took a step to the side and aimed back at the tunnel she'd emerged from. "That."

Kirche peeked into it, using her swords to illuminate the way. "That's a lot of ghouls."

"Ghouls." Louise repeated with a lost look on her face. "Yes, those were a lot of drau-" She was about to say, but interrupted herself. "Ghouls, right?"

With the light cast by Kirche's magic, the group was able to see a staircase that connected to a lower level which, in turn, led to several other tunnels and hallways. And it was all covered in bodies and body parts. Not even a single square inch of the floor remained free blood, and entrails hung from the walls as if they were grotesque vines. There must have been more bodies there than in the Cathedral.

"Founder above." Amethyst gasped, covering her mouth.

Yes, there! Now maybe they would understand. "I know, right? You must be very happy that Louise wasn't trying to kill you back when we first met."

Unperturbed by the scene, Charlotte approached to inspect one of the bodies. She kneeled next to it and with her staff, she turned it around. "Gallian imperial armor."

The ghoul was dressed in a white tunic, with a chest piece composed of several steel strips that were barely hanging together after most of the leather straps had rotten away. In fact, it looked as if the only thing stopping the armor from completely falling apart was that it was glued to the rotten corpse.

"Six hundred years old," She added.

That was old.

"There were older ones down there." Louise confirmed. "At least they tasted like that."

A grunt of annoyance rumbled in Guiche's throat. "If that's the case, how powerful is the vampire we are going after?"

Louise exchanged a look with her aunts. "That's a good question."

Guiche didn't look too happy about that. "I assume you don't know, then."

"Just be careful, alright?" Patting her sides, Louise swiped the dust off. "Now, what did you find in my absence?"

Guiche opened his mouth to reply, but Kirche beat him to it. "Well, we found the vampire's lair with art pieces they had stolen and, well, the bodies they had eaten." She gestured at the pile.

Louise's eyes narrowed. "These look like-"

"I already told them."

"Good. Now, any idea of where the vampire is?"

"None yet." Guiche cut in. "The only thing we figured out is that they left after the collapse."

Louise paced around the bloodied chamber, a grim look on her face. "Why would they do that? If the idea was to secure their lair by bringing the tunnel down, why didn't they return?"

"Maybe they thought it wasn't worth the risk?" Guiche guessed.

"It has been three months since then, and there aren't any plans to even try to rebuild the section." Louise peeked out into the main chamber cluttered with its ill-gotten goods and discarded meals. "And just look at this place! They clearly invested a lot here, too much to simply abandon it."

"Maybe they are busy with a job?" Kirche offered. "We know that someone has been hiring them as an assassin."

"Maybe." Louise said, unconvinced, approaching the pile. "We're still missing something." She pulled at the crooked leg and the entire thing fell apart, bodies rolling over one another onto the floor like a grotesque house of cards.

And amongst them all, one body stood out amongst the rest of them.

Charlotte was the first to react, turning around and dashing away back to the surface, her leaps enhanced by wind magic.

"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" Louise immediately followed after her, with her aunts and Isabella's knights close behind.

Guiche was about to leave too when he noticed that Kirche hadn't moved from her spot.

"Miss Zerbst!"

Kirche didn't react and just remained there staring at it with her mouth hanging open in horror.

She didn't want to look at it. She didn't want to believe what she was seeing. She had been playing with the little girl and her older sister just hours ago!

But the corpse was months old, and her features couldn't be mistaken.

That was the body of Odette.

A/N: And there it goes! This was another one of those chapters that I have been wanting to write for a long while and I hope you enjoyed it. Next chapter the hunt for the vampire comes to an end.