Shadow wings

Whispers from the dead - The second sacred trial

The tunnel was narrow and the air smelled musty. There were skulls drawn on the walls with different colors, some even gave off a slight glow. After they silently walked for a while the tunnel opend into a big hall wich loked like a dining room of an old castle.The walls were decorated with paintings and tapestries. But it weren't those which attracted the attention of the companions, it was the four long tables, or rather what was sitting at them: corpses. Horribly disfigured, they looked as if they had been dead for thousands of years. But even more disturbing was the way they sat at the tables: it was as if they died in the middle of a feast, got frozen and mummified at the same moment.The tables were not only festively set but also stocked with fresh food. At the end of the corridor there was a large throne in front of the next door. Another corpse sat on the throne, wearing a golden robe."The food looks really fresh!" Laxus shouted excitedly. "Isn't it strange? The corpses are hundreds of years old but the food seems indeed fresh..." Gall murmured. "That's perfect!" Laxus said and grabbed an apple from one of the plates and sank his teeth into it. "By the holy three! Don't eat something like that!" Mary shouted angrily. "What's supposed to happen?" The brunet mumbled. "If you're going to risk your life, at least have some manners and don't talk with your mouth full." Luna admonished him.Ferndall looked around and examined the bodies more closely. They all wore the same two types of clothing: either silver robes with elaborate patterns embossed into them, or sturdy-looking armor with an engraved seal. This seemed familiar to the prince, but he didn't know why. "Gall, can you come over here for a moment?" he asked the elf. "Sure. What do you need, sweetie?" The blond responded immediately and walked over to him. "Do you recognize this seal? It looks familiar, but I don't know why." Ferndall explained.The taller one looked at the seal and said, "This is the sign of eternal death... "Gálathed." I could recognise it everywhere. It is the mark of those who served the former God of Death but ultimately betrayed him. They are eternally cursed to live between life and death. They have no mind, cannot remember their past lives and yet they are trapped and cannot break free. Their souls are sealed in bodies that are suppost to be incapable of still containing souls. I wish I could free them. So they could go where they belong. Not even the cruelest creature deserves this curse. But it can not be broken..."Ferndall swallowed "That sounds really horrible... What exactly does "cursed to live between life and death" mean?.." Gall answered slowly: "Their bodies are dead, but their souls are still present. The souls are trapped in the bodies, but cannot control them. However, I suspect that there is another curse on them. A curse that could possibly bring them back to life or at least move their bodies... We have to keep our guard up." Ferndall nodded and they continued walking in the direction of the throne.As they approached the door, a strange feeling began to arise in Ferndall, but he couldn't tell why. Suddenly the body on the throne moved slightly. Ferndall immedately stopped and took a step backwards, which lead him to bump into Gall, who walked behind him. "Is somthing wrong?" The elf asked. Ferndall was about to tell him what he had seen but he froze. The corpse slowly looked up and spoke in a loud voice: "Welcome to the second sacred trial""Holy shit! That scared me to death." Laxus screamed and dropped the rest of his apple on the ground. "So far I have given you no reason to be afraid. But if you feel the fear within you, I would recommend you to leave now. This is your last chance." said the corpse while its empty eye sockets stared into the distance. Everyone was to stunt to speak for a moment then the corpse continued talking: "However, if you consider yourself up to this task, then hear my words. You have already passed the first test, now it is up to you to pass the second one as well. Each of you will fight individually against warriors chosen by me. More than half of them you have to win, otherwise you won't pass. It would probably be best to win them all, because those who don't win their fight will be part of our wonderful banquet..."Suddenly the tables and benches began to shift. The food vanished into thin air and a large fighting ring formed between the companions and the throne. "The one who wants to begin the first fight should come forward" the dead man on the throne said. The companions looked at each other. "I will take the first fight, then we will have a better idea about how such a fight will proceed." Luna said decidedly. "But wouldn't that be dangerous?" Marelin asked. "Every fight will be dangerous. "It won't make much difference." Luna replied. "If you can't decide who will fight first, leave it to me," Gall suggested. The dragonborne said firmly: "No, absolutely not. I'll take care of it." No one contradicted her so she moved forward into the ring.The dead man on the throne examined them closely, then did the same to the bodies on the benches. He pointed to one of the dead, who then got up and went into the ring on the opposite side of Luna. "Every fight has different participants and therefore different rules. The rule for this special fight says: No magic, neither passive, i.e. healing or protective spells, nor active, i.e. attack spells or summons." "Every fight has its own rules and he can set them. This is an unfair advantage. He can take advantage of our weak and banish our strong!" Mary said angrily. "Are you questioning my trustworthiness? Whether you trust me or not, you have no choice but to follow my rules." The dead man laughed dryly. Ferndall bit his lip nervously, an uneasy feeling spreading through him. What Mary said was reasonable, which worried him even more."If there are no further objections, please begin," the man said annoyed. Luna's opponent didn't hesitate, she barely had time to draw her sword before he attacked her with a huge battle axe. However, Luna already saw the attack coming and was able to dodge it in time.The undead also reacted quickly, but instead of turning around to attack her again with his blade, he swung his handle at her and actually hit her shoulder. Although Luna was well trained in sword fighting, over time she had focused more on using magic. But even when fighting with a sword, she was more used to planned and well thought-out attacks. But unlike living creatures, the warrior had no system behind his attacks. He hit her whenever he had the chance, without thinking whether he was exposing a vulnerable spot. Ferndall now doubted that the warrior could even think. The undead struck the Dragonborn again and again. You could see how exhausting this fight was for her. Her opponent raised his sword and revealed his unprotected torso, Luna immediately took advantage of this and rammed her sword through his chest.The Dead Warrior stopped mid-motion and looked down at his chest as if he couldn't believe what had happened. Luna pulled her sword out of him and kicked him into the stomache, causing him to collapse. He remained motionless and a horribly intense smelling dark green liquid ran down from his wound.The undead sitting on the throne ​​now straightened up and his empty eye sockets seemed to rest on his warrior's motionless body before he said in a calm voice: "Very well... It looks like I underestimated you. You actually won your first fight. Now please leave the ring so that the next can step forward." With these words he clapped his hands twice and the body that had been lying in the ring until now dissolved into a cloud of green smoke. The undead reappeared again near his undead companions, this time peaceful. So they actually couldn't die... Gall stepped forward, gazed at Ferndall briefly and walked into the ring. But instead of staying at this point, he continued towards the one sitting on the throne. He seemed to be saying something to the dead man, but Ferndall couldn't hear it. The dead man, however, did not seem to be happy, but then seemed agree. Then Gall went to the middle of the ring again.While the dead man examined him, as he had previously done with Luna, Gall tied his hair together and took off his white robe, under which he wore brown trousers and a tight-fitting top. He felt his heartbeat quicken and Ferndall was once again reminded of how beautiful the elf looked.The man sitting on the throne silently pointed to someone sitting in the rows of the dead. Out stepped a gigantic warrior in light leather armor. The fighter was about the same height as Gall and, considering he was dead, quite muscular. He entered the ring and waited silently for his leader's signal."The rules for this fight are no magic and no weapons. Is that clear?" Gall nodded and the undead warrior gave an indistinct growl, which his leader seemed to be able to interpret because he said: "Very well. You may begin now."Ferndall turned to Luna, who had sat down on the floor to rest and said: "Neither magic nor weapons? That's unfair... How is he supposed to win that?" "And yet it's not like we can do anything about it..."Unlike his predecessor, the undead warrior did not rush directly at his opponent, instead he examined the blond. The undead slowly walked towards Gall, but when he was only a few meters away from the blonde, he quickly changed his direction and attacked him from the side. Gall seemed to have been prepared for such an attack and ducked under the blow. Now standing behind his enemy, he didn't hesitate and kicked him in the back, which caused the warrior to stumble. When he had caught himself, he turned around to Gall. His facial expression couldn't be seen through the dry or non-existent skin, but Ferndall could imagine that he wasn't thrilled.The undead let out a deep growl from his throat and slowly walked towards the blonde again. When he stormed off again and had almost reached the elf, Gall dodged again and kicked his opponent. The blonde took a few steps back. The undead warrior was almost seething with rage. He hesitated for a moment but then attacked the elf again. But when he tried to move away again, the undead also changed its direction. He hit into the nothing. Gall hadn't evaded , he had merely hinted at it.Ferndall was impressed, it was as if Gall knew exactly what the plan of his enemy was. The undead stumbled, almost breaking the ring's confines. Ferndall was not familiar with the exact rules of the fights, but he could remember a ringfight that took place in Necropolis a few years back with the clear rule: Whoever left the ring before the end of the fight lost. If this was the case, the Prince immediatly understood Gall's plan.Gall slowly walked backwards until he was right at the barrier. He smiled superiorly at his opponent, who became immediatly more furious. The warrior roared loudly and ran towards the elf. When he had almost reached him, Gall again indicated that he would move away, but instead of stopping, he swerved in the other direction. With a kick to the legs, the undead fell to the ground and over the barrier. As soon as he touched the ground on the other side, he dissolved into a cloud of smoke.Ferndall smiled and said, "Impressive. Pretty well thought throu." Gall returned his smile and replied, "You flatter me, sweetie." Ferndall stepped forward to enter the ring, but the blonde stopped him and said: "Ferndall, The undead are physically strong but not really smart. They follow a kind of set combat script, thats why their leader has to choose which of them is the best warrior to fight against us. Nevertheless, be careful." Ferndall smiled softly and nodded, then he climbed into the ring.The undead glanced at him briefly and then pointed to one of the dead warriors. The one he pointed at got up and also entered the ring. He was slightly taller than the prince, but didn't seem to have any other special features. "There are no hard and fast rules for this fight. When you're ready, you may start it."In the first few seconds of the fight, Ferndall noticed something striking: the undead chosen to fight him didn't seem to be particularly strong. His attacks were slow and careless and after just under a minute Ferndall had hit his opponent with his sword. As before, the undead dissolved and Ferndall left confused the ring. It was also easy for Marelin and Ray, who went into the ring after Ferndall, to defeat their opponents. Luna seemed suspicious of the matter and as Mary was about to enter the ring, the Dragonborn's suspicions were put to rest when the leader of the undead suddenly said: "You are the last two participants. The tradition of our people says that the last participants in the demanding competition have to compete against themselves.""Damn, I knew it wouldn't be that easy!" cursed Luna. "You can't be serious! That would mean that one of us would inevitably have to become part of your undead warriors." Marelin shouted angrily.The dead grind and said: "You are not in a position to order me to do things. But of course there is also another option. If you refuse to fight each other, then you can also try to defeat me. But barely any one has ever been able to do this before." "It would definitely make sense to fight against each other. In this case only one person would be eliminated, if we fight him we are all at risk..." Ray mumbled. "That's of course easy to say as someone who has already won his fight!" Laxus shouted. "It is indeed a difficult decision... Ferndall, you are the one who was able to open the gate to the temple, "You should be the one to decide"Ferndall hesitated for a moment. He felt his heart beat faster and his whole body became hot and he immediately became nervous. He couldn't make such a decision. If he chose to have Mary and Laxus fight each other, he would inevitably be responsible for the dead of one of his friends, but if he chose not to, even more things could go wrong. But he had to be able to bear and withstand this responsibility. He hesitated for a moment but then he looked up, he had made up his mind.