Something Immortal

38: The Undead Part Three

[TW: This part contains content that some might find disturbing, reader's discretion is advised]

It was just one of the few moments where he let his guard down, and though he was embarrassed by this, Som didn't feel a single ounce of regret for letting his feelings known.

"Uhm, where do you think the dragon priest is?" Som asked, still blushing through the dark.

Kali paused for a while to admire his face but averted his gaze as he didn't want Som to feel any more discomfited. "He must be somewhere around this chapel."

"Let's look for it!" Som urged, "Or these things won't disappear."

The draconian prince nodded and they fought their way through throngs of undead monks awakened from their coffins. Their friends understood right away that they were searching for the dragon priest and helped them pass by. They tore down every door they could find and discovered that this chapel has a second, third, and fourth floor. And each room, no matter how big or small, was infested with undead monks either sitting on a stoned seating or inside their coffins. Som knew it wouldn't be long before they awakened but since Kali was with him, he couldn't feel a single bit of fear.

At the third floor, Som discovered a narrow pathway hidden behind the bookshelves. There was a hallway there that continued down an unknown path that soon changed from stone walls to a cavernous entrance. There were waters dripping and the light was fading that he was forced to summoned tiny embers again to see through the darkness. Well, at least for him since Kali didn't need it. Speaking of, Kali's isosceles slits gleamed against the obscurity that it seemed to be a pair of purple jewels that was both hypnotizing and blinding.

"Do you think we're going up or we're going down?" He asked the prince.

Kali thought for a while. "Down."

"What makes you say that?"

"A guess."

Som giggled. "It's like we're in hell already."

"This is just one of the many catacombs of the undead."

"There's a lot like this place around this world, huh?"

Kali was amused at the way he narrate. Som spoke as though he didn't belong in this world. "Far worse than this one."

"I guess this part of the competition is my favorite."

"Really? You didn't like fighting a monstrous boar yet you find thrill in fighting hordes of the undead?"

"Not really," Som clarified this. "I am more terrified of them than the monstrous beast. But they are more interesting because they are wiser. Plus, the stories behind their existence."

"Stories?"

"I like a good novel. If you want to be with me, you have to read me a good story."

Kali smiled and looked at him straight in the eyes. "You've just given me an idea for a wedding gift."

Som blushed but didn't say anything.

They reached the end of the cave and saw a light illuminating from above. Beneath it was a tomb surrounded by stones and a part of the river outside. This was the biggest tomb they had seen in the place and there were intricate patterns carved on the edges and on top of it was an embossed shape of a face—one of the known masks that belonged to one of the dragon priests.

✧༺♥༻∞

"Do you think he's there?" Som asked his companion who appeared more calmer than before.