"Catch Antilene! Don't let her get away!"
If Antilene escaped, she might alert the rest of the Slane Theocracy. Then the three adventurers would have to carve a bloody path through an army's encirclement—not the outcome EeDechi wanted.
EeDechi broke into a sprint, closing the gap with Antilene in a few powerful leaps. Antilene glanced back, her slender hand slapping the stone wall, triggering a hidden stone door to grind open.
She slipped through the doorway, and the magic-etched stone slab slammed shut behind her.
"ORA!"
EeDechi charged the door, smashing it to pieces with a single punch.
As stone dust clouded the air, a venomous scythe blade slashed toward EeDechi's throat.
EeDechi tilted her head back, dodging the glinting edge by inches, then lunged through the shattered doorway. Planting her feet, she twisted her hips and swung her giant sword in a brutal arc, crashing it against Antilene's massive scythe. The impact sent Antilene's grip faltering, her blood-red scythe trembling with a relentless metallic hum.
Seizing the moment, EeDechi thrust forward, her giant sword locking against the massive scythe. With a deft flick and upward slice, she sent Antilene's weapon spinning out of her hands. The scythe whirled through the air, embedding itself in the stone wall, while two skull-shaped ornaments clattered and rolled across the floor.
EeDechi hefted her giant sword, finally taking in the surroundings of the stone chamber. The room was spacious, filled with piles of white skulls. A quick glance suggested there were hundreds of them.
Some skulls were stacked in pyramid shapes, others arranged in circles, but most were heaped in the center of the chamber, surrounding a frame-like object draped in silk.
"You…" Antilene gasped, her hands empty, her black-and-white eyes burning with defiance. "You'll never set foot in the God of Death's sanctum! I'll fight you to the end!"
Before she could finish, EeDechi had already strode seven or eight steps into the "God of Death's sanctum."
Antilene charged at EeDechi barehanded, a whirlwind of fury. Franco, hiding behind Barrett, raised his wand. A black beam shot from its tip, grazing EeDechi's shoulder and striking Antilene mid-air.
Antilene faltered, stumbling to the ground. EeDechi lunged forward, her left hand clamping onto Antilene's incoming fist while her right gripped the back of Antilene's neck.
With a swift leap, EeDechi's sturdy right thigh wrapped tightly around Antilene's slender waist. Her left leg swung high, arcing over Antilene's head, then locked around her neck in a chokehold.
Antilene and EeDechi crashed to the ground together. EeDechi seized Antilene's right arm, yanking it straight, while her legs tightened like a vice around Antilene's head, cutting off her air.
With the flying armbar maneuver, EeDechi pinned her like a dragonfly chained in iron, leaving Antilene unable to move. Her eyes rolled back, and she passed out cold.
Barrett and Franco rushed in, scrambling over each other. Franco, practically buzzing with excitement, conjured a thick red rope and, with practiced skill, tied Antilene up in a tight tortoise shell bondage.
"Is this really the best the Slane Theocracy has to offer?" EeDechi said, shaking her head at the unconscious Antilene sprawled on the floor.
Franco brushed back Antilene's hair and gasped, "Pointy ears!"
"Pointy ears?" Barrett leaned in, equally stunned. "Antilene's a half-elf!"
The Slane Theocracy was notorious for its hatred of non-humans and its human-supremacist dogma. Yet their greatest warrior was a half-elf. EeDechi suddenly understood why the Theocracy kept Antilene hidden, rarely sending her on missions.
Franco rambled on, "If she's a half-elf, based on my experience, she's gotta be decades old, maybe even a hundred. It's her bloodline that keeps her looking like a young girl."
"So what?" EeDechi asked.
"So, she's no spring chicken—she's a lonely middle-aged woman. Let me soothe her sexually frustrated soul." Franco rubbed his hands together eagerly.
…
After subduing Antilene and reining in Franco's wandering enthusiasm, EeDechi turned her attention to the stone chamber.
"Antilene mentioned this is the sanctum of the God of Death, Surshana," EeDechi said, frowning. "Could Surshana's most prized possession be stored here?"
The room was filled with piles of white skulls. At the highest mound, a silver metal pillar stood, supporting a frame-like object draped in dusty silk, its contents obscured.
EeDechi stared at the heaps of bones, shaking her head. "I never pegged the Slane Theocracy for saints, but how many people did they kill to amass this many skulls?"
"These aren't human skulls," Barrett said, picking up a bone from the floor and examining it closely. "These are elf skulls."
He grabbed a few more, studying them before concluding, "Every skull here comes from an elf."
"You're quite the expert on cross-species anatomy, huh? You can even tell them apart like that," EeDechi said, impressed once again by Barrett's vast knowledge.
Barrett cleared his throat. "It's nothing special. Just got a bit of history with a few necromancers, helping them source materials for their experiments now and then."
EeDechi's gaze shifted to the silver pillar rising from the pile of bones. After a moment's hesitation, she steeled herself against the nausea and stepped onto the skull heap. Her boots sank into the pile, sending a few skulls rolling down like loose stones.
Wading through the elf skulls, EeDechi made her way to the silver pillar, each step uneven. She reached the frame-like object atop it, her heart pounding with anticipation and unease. With a deep breath, she pulled back the dusty silk covering it.
As the silk fell away, dust swirled in the air.
A painting?
EeDechi froze. It was indeed a painting, mounted in a wooden frame, depicting a white-haired beauty in an ornate robe. The artistry was exquisite, every detail vivid and lifelike.
The woman in the painting smiled charmingly, her expression warm, her snowy hair flowing softly, her eyes and brows captivating with a playful allure. Even EeDechi found herself momentarily entranced by the beauty.
Snapping out of it, EeDechi frowned, picked up the frame, and examined it closely, turning it over in her hands. She stepped out of the bone pile and handed it to Barrett for his appraisal.
Barrett took the painting and paused, struck by the woman's elegance and beauty. But he quickly regained focus, inspecting the frame's material and grain. "This painting's got to be centuries old," he concluded.
Franco leaned in for a look, but before his tongue could make contact with the canvas, EeDechi yanked the painting away.
After the trio's thorough inspection, they confirmed it was just an ordinary painting, devoid of any supernatural power.
The frame was plain boxwood, nothing special. Though a preservation spell kept the painting untouched by time, it was, in the end, just a mundane object.