The Grand Catastrophe

…

Arche was sighed as she looked through the glass in her hand. She recognized some of those ruins. Now, many of the other Workers didn’t seem to. She saw as some of the different parties looked to each other in happiness and awe. To them, this seemed like a good spot for some treasure.

To her, though, this was obviously some tomb belonging to someone from the faith of the 41. She scowled at the thought of fighting or angering the person people or the person protecting her little sisters.

If this tomb simply came from the same or a similar culture, then she wouldn’t really mind. Yet, if they were of the same faith as Calvaria, then she might not want to even get close to it.

She looked back at her allies, all smiles as they waited for her to tell them what she saw from over the hills that surrounded the tomb. She frowned as she thought about what to tell them. She hadn’t the faintest idea of what to say.

How did she tell them not to do what they had been hired to do? How did she tell them that this was an even worse idea than she had originally thought? She sighed as she walked back down to them from higher up on the hill.

There, she saw as Hekkeran smiled and leaned forward. His smile made her frown even deeper, and he seemingly saw this. He himself wiped the smile from his lips, and asked what was wrong. She didn’t really know how to tell them.

“What’s wrong Arche? Does something look off about this now?” he asked and the rest nodded their heads, also noticing her look.

She simply sighed. How to start this? She decided to just blurt it out.

“The architecture matches that of the church that I left my sisters at. I think that this tomb is of the same culture that Calvaria and the rest of her party is from,” she uttered, and the others looked to each other.

Roberdyck himself sighed, and put a hand to his chin as he spoke aloud his thoughts. He himself was a man of faith. He understood the reason that she was nervous. Imina and Hekkeran simply looked to each other as they themselves thought about what this meant.

Their team seemed to be the only ones that noticed this. Arche looked on at the other teams. The area that they had set the tents up at was flat and open, with small hills around the area. Mounds of earth had been piled onto the walls of the tomb. She assumed there to be lower levels of the tomb, further in.

The other teams sent out some scouts with invisibility spells or potions active, and waited in a central area. This was so they could discuss what they found after the scouts came back. Arche looked to their own fearless leader. Hekkeran smiled his signature smile, and moved to join them.

As he did so, Arche looked to her friends. Roberdyck looked to the tomb itself, more entranced by the thought of an ancient and foreign religion than anything else. Imina simply was looking off into the sunset.

Arche looked to it as well. It was a rather beautiful sight. The way in which the light of the setting sun danced on the edge of the world. It was a wonder why people didn’t worship it. She closed her eyes, and let the rest of the sunlight bathe her.

This night was going to be a night to remember. She had a plan form in her mind, after all. A plan to make sure that her friends came out of this alive. She was fairly certain that they may not otherwise. It was just a gut feeling, really.

…

Night had fallen. The moon was blocked by the clouds above their heads. Arche looked around the area. Her frown still marring her face. She had told her friends about the buildings and the tomb probably being a part of the faith.

Imina had simply said that they should try to document the tomb instead of taking anything. The rest of the group had agreed to this. The other teams had been fine with it as well. It was more treasure for them, obviously. Dragon Hunt had wanted to stay on the surface as well.

Their reasons were less of a distrust of their chances under the ground, and more greed aligned. Arche had simply shook her head when she heard that. She was fairly certain, now that they had started to move to the different buildings around the flat and dry area, that this place was an important area to the Faith of the 41.

As she had noticed earlier, the area was as flat as the outside area. The ground was sparce of grass, and the ground that wasn’t covered in grass was mostly gravel. There was about four other buildings on the surface, other than the entrance deeper down.

They were moving to the closest building. Their feet taking them most of the way. There was an invisibility spell put on them by some of the other groups. It faded as they stepped to the building. Arche looked across the area as the rest and her of her group made it to the building.

The moon finally peaked from the cloud cover as they started to enter the building. As she looked into the building, she spotted the insignia of the 41, of Ainz Ooal Gown. She saw it sewn into a banner, hanging on the wall. As she locked her eyes onto it, she failed to notice her friends trying to get her attention.

The colors were a deeper shade and richer purple than she had ever witnessed in her life. The gold was deeper than what the name or even metal would imply. Her eyes latched onto it. Her mind couldn’t think of anything else.

Then she realized that she was staring, and she shook her head to dispel the thoughts lingering in her head. This place was a taboo place to intrude upon. She looked around to see her friends. The rest of her party had broken away from her, and were currently looking around the place.

There was desks along the walls of the building, gold glittered in piles on the surface. She didn’t pick it up, assuming that it may have been some sort of offering to the dead or other such things. There were drawers set in the desks, and she opened them to find what looked like some sort of embalming tools.

There was also a set of jars in the drawers under the ones she first checked. As she leaned down, she smelled what was coming from them. It smelled of salt, and she assumed that it was salt for the embalming process.

After about ten minutes of checking, and writing down what they found in their notes, they noticed that the sounds from the outside had stopped. The whole group looked outside of the building, and spotted something strange.

There, in the middle of the clearing next to the main entrance of the tomb, was Dragon Hunt, fighting several undead. Arche was about to run out of the building, but something stopped her. Her allies looked to the battle happening then back to each other.

“Should we help them?” Imina asked.

“No,” Arche said, shocking the rest of them, “If their fighting the residents of this tomb, as you can see farther up the steps to the entrance, then we should leave and report what have found. We were only told to investigate the tomb. We aught to leave,” she spoke, and the others nodded their heads.

…