Demonic Skies *On Hold*

Chapter 22: A Race Against Time

"So this is it?" Orland spoke faintly as their group arrived atop a hill overlooking a large basin.

The mountain given by Crimson Axe's leader led to this basin. Aidan had searched it two years ago but found nothing. It was a mistake on his part to dismiss physical concealments and traps foregoing magical ones. It was in this way, this location passed under his radar.

The mountain itself shot straight up with no clear ways up while trees grew. At the base rested the remains of the old town "normal" citizens not part of the sect resided. At the rear was a waterfall falling from the top. One of the several mysteries of the forest, the waterfall never stopped flowing though it was unknown where the water came from given the limited area of the mountain and irregular rain seasons.

Aidan had immediately brought his undead foregoing Rolland for obvious reasons making him stay behind. In total he possessed a group of two hundred and fifty. It was small, but he focused on quality over quantity.

One hundred fifty were stage two warrior equivalents and the final hundred were stage three. Only Orland, Bea and Narissa possessed stage four equivalent abilities. Given their numbers and seeing as how it took them five days to arrive, it should give Aidan adequate time to explore the vault.

"How is it?" Aidan asked through his connection.

"No movements yet," Layla responded.

Aidan had Layla keep an eye on the city while he moved. He understood with his exposed interest, the other groups would make their move soon. The best case scenario was if each group moved independently but with the involvement of the Church of Lurasha, that may not be the case.

The involvement of the Church complicated matters. Aidan had several dealings with their ilk over the years. The sanctimonious twats had a propensity for interrupting his works at inopportune moments. The last time resulted in losing forty undead and several materials to repair Orland's wounds.

"Keep me updated. Any large parties leaving the city for the forest, tell me right away," Aidan spoke as Layla gave a mental nod before he cut the connection.

"It's time to go," Aidan informed Orland as he marched down.

A wave of undead, more than two hundred fifty strong marched down the hill into the basin. If anyone saw such a scene, it would undoubtedly fill them with fear. Such a number of undead had never been seen before.

Their group arrived at the desolate town. Millennia long neglect had caused the brick buildings to decay. Walls and ceilings were caved in, brick had mossed over with overgrowth, anything that may have been made by wood had either rotted over or were nearing such a state.

"Divide the groups as usual. Two groups on the central gate, one on the west and south gates and divide the rest along the walls," Aidan commanded.

"Understood," Orland and Bea both acknowledged.

"Something wrong?" Aidan asked the confused looking Narissa.

"What am I supposed to do?" Narissa asked with trepidation. Unlike Bea and Orland who had experience and grown accustomed to Aidan's orders, she felt at loss as to what she had to do.

"If and when others come, focus on gaining fighting experience. Stay close to your brother and sister and avoid losing your life, it is not easy to bring you siblings back," Aidan finished his main concerns at the end.

Narissa nodded and left to find her siblings while Aidan went to the back of the town as planned. The town itself was situated around the base of the waterfall making it a good place to bunker down to keep anyone else from sneaking in. With the walls defended Aidan had peace of mind to continue as planned.

Aidan came up to the water, the roar of the waterfall hitting the base of water filling his ears. Looking into the large pond he found the water to be surprisingly clear, the walls of pond not the regular dirt or rock but a bluish rock, native to the region. How people had missed it was beyond him but he made a mental note to extract some to sell at a later time.

Finding the path off to the side of the pond, it led Aidan through a carved out path in the walls of the mountain winding behind the waterfall. If the dwarf had not said anything Aidan would never had spotted the triggering mechanism as other holes littered the wall disguising it. Triggering the mechanism, the wall directly to his left shook. Letting out a burst of air through the cracks, the wall pulled itself in and pulled into the ground.

"Similar to the door the dwarves made for the...family...yes," Aidan mumbled incoherently before walking in.

Pitch darkness, such that even Aidan had trouble seeing. Pulling out a long copper rod from his chest pocket, he pointed it into the abyss before him. Mumbling an incantation, lights shot out and illuminated the path before him.

It took him half an hour to disable all the traps Gwandolvir revealed in his discussion before arriving at a large chamber. Looking around, Aidan saw four pathways. Two were protected by magical wards making the other two the only places Crimson Axe explored on their first attempt.

Aidan searched the first pathway double checking to see if Crimson Axe missed anything. An hour of searching and checking for anything concealed through magic or otherwise wielded no results. The second pathway, Aidan found a hidden room hidden behind a trick wall. Inside were some gold jewelry and some books he carefully stored into his ring before leaving.

The third and fourth path were a complicated matter. Aidan could create wards but his understanding in undoing them were a different matter. It took him two hours to undo the first ward protecting the third pathway. Behind that ward were another five wards taking him a further nine hours.

He finished, feeling completely exhausted and slept before continuing down the path.

Aidan approached cautiously down the stone hallway. Feeling overly cautious of possible traps, he finally came up with an idea. Going back to the town Aidan summoned one of the skeletons and brought it back with him.

Aidan used the poor skeleton warrior to trigger any traps. One trap triggered shooting arrows doing little damage. Ten traps in, the armor of the skeleton had fallen off and though it could not cry, it was surely doing so on the inside. Their master was so cruel to them. Finally it was crushed by closing walls and turned to dust.

Aidan reluctantly went back for another skeleton. This was something not missed by the others who worried about what happened to the first. With sorrow, they watched their brother reluctantly being dragged away by their oppressor.

Like this, Aidan made progress over the next three days, losing another four skeletons. By then, rumor had made its rounds and whenever Aidan left, the undead would fearfully hide. It was a sad scene as the third skeleton literally cried aloud as Aidan dragged it by the foot away and into the vault, never to be seen again.

However, it was all worth it. At least to Aidan it was. He finally reached an iron door at the end of the path and used some magic to open it up. Inside was a vault full of treasures and books. Aidan was visibly giddy turning towards the skeleton at his side and pardoning him from having to help with the other pathway. The skeleton was so touched it bowed to Aidan thanking him profusely.

"Master?" Layla contacted Aidan through the connection.

"Yes?"

"A group has left the city. It is a hundred fifty large. Some are wearing the armor you spoke to me of and I see the mage you spoke of," Layla communicated to him showing him what she saw through the connection at that moment.

Aidan recognized the Lurasha insignia as well as Gilford. As he had expected, the old fox teamed up with the church. However, a hundred fifty was doable. He would suffer losses but he could make them retreat. The priority was the last section of the vault. At their numbers it should take them four days to get to their location. He could stall for a further three days. Seven days, that was how long he had to look through the vault before having to leave before the church brought reinforcements.