POV Rio
The catacombs are exactly as you would expect: musty, dark, and a little damp with bones everywhere.
"If the knight is buried here, he should be in the older sections of the catacombs," Lara points out.
"Lumos," I cast and create a light source.
Before we go, I seal the entrance behind us just in case. I didn't want to be attacked from behind after all.
Squeak
Everyone stops and looks for the source of the sound and finds a rat.
"Excuse me, ladies, let me through," I say before approaching the rat.
I near the rat, and we start conversing, and I give the Rat some food for his help.
"Why am I not surprised you can speak with animals?" Lara comments dryly.
"Well, if you are done being sarcastic, I think I found what we are looking for," I reply snarkily.
Lara gestures for me to continue.
"Remi says that there is a secret chamber sealed off from the rest of the catacombs. Few are buried there, but he does warn us not to drink the bitter, slippery substance that fills the area," I reply.
"Bitter slippery substance?" Lara asks with confusion.
"Remi?" Lucy adds.
"Well, okay, you got me, I'm just calling him Remi, but he doesn't really have a name that translates to English, or really any human language. As for the warning, I have no idea what he means. Rats are very intelligent, but that doesn't mean everything they say makes sense," I reply with a shrug.
Lara shakes her head, and I lead the way to where the Rat told me to go. Eventually, I led us to a dead end, and I opened the way again with magic. Revealing a new chamber full of some kind of fluid. I touch the fluid, and I am surprised to learn what it is.
"Crude Oil, a bit stagnant but oil nonetheless," I comment.
They look at the oil and the many rats near it, and I can tell they don't love the idea.
"Let me handle this," I offer and start casting some spells.
The oil starts to move towards me, and I place any that nears me into my inventory. I didn't know if I really needed the oil, but it wouldn't hurt to have it, and I could store it later. Not to mention, I had the room to store it anyway. Once I was done, all the oil was gone, and we could walk through without issue. As for the Rats, I talked with them and gave them food to give us free passage without being hampered.
"Good job," Lara says and smacks me in the rear, but then she trips and has to go into a roll to recover.
"Oh, are you alright?" I ask while I help her up.
"Yeah, I just felt something trip me up," Lara says with a calm smile.
In either case, we continue on until we reach a much deeper part of the chamber, where a massive stone coffin is present, though it is open.
"Hold up," I say, and everyone stops moving.
"Reveal yourself!" I say while channeling some mana into my hands.
"What brings you here, mage?" asks an armored wight as it rises from the stone coffin.
"We are on a quest for the Holy Grail," I answer.
"None shall pass," the wight says.
"What?" Lara asks.
"None shall pass," the wight repeats.
"We have no quarrel with you, good man; let us pass in peace," I request.
"I move for no man," the wight threatens.
"What about a woman?" Lara comments.
The wight looks at her, Lucy, and finally me.
"Return from whence you came or fight!" the wight demands.
"Let's save the time and top this git!" I shout before casting some spells.
The spell hits the wight, and the wight is blasted back before he loses his arm, and he stumbles back.
"Now stand down, warrior!" I warn while charging more magic.
"Tis but a scratch," the wight says nonchalantly.
"A scratch, your bloody arm is missing," I practically shout.
"No, it isn't," the wight blatantly lies.
"Then what is that!?" I demand while pointing at his arm on the ground.
The wight looks at his missing left arm and then back at me.
"I've had worse," the wight says with certainty.
"You bloody liar!" I shout.
"Come on, you pansy!" the wight says while charging at me.
He charges at me, but I just send another spell at him, and before he can cross even half the distance, he is blasted back into the wall while losing yet another arm.
"Well, that's done," I comment before dispelling my gathered magic.
I shake my head, and we start walking forward, but the wight gets up and starts kicking at us very pathetically.
"Come on then!" the wight says as if he hadn't lost already.
"What?" Lucy says, before I can say anything, likely cause I was just so baffled and honestly a little amused.
"Have at thee!" the wight says threateningly, or rather they try, but with how he looks, that doesn't seem feasible.
"Look, you lost, now stop pestering us," I threaten while bringing up more mana.
"Oh? Had enough, eh?" the wight mocks.
"Look, you bloody idiot, you don't have any arms left!" I respond as the wight kicks my shins.
"But a flesh wound," the wight confidently said.
I take one look at the idiotic undead and just blast both his legs off to be done with this. The wight looks astonished as he looks at his limbless form.
"Alright, we'll call it a draw," the wight says with a nod as if I had already agreed.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and ignore the yells of anger as we leave him be.
"Noisy," Lucy comments.
"Yeah, but I'll put him out of his misery before we leave," I reply.
"Too late," Lucy replies, and I notice the yells have ended.
"How did you kill him? Wights are usually a pain in the rear to kill," I ask.
Lucy picks up a rock and pulverizes it with her vectors. I simply nod.
"That was a wight?" Lara asks.
"Yep, I suppose we were fortunate not to have to deal with a ghost," I reply.
"Why is that?" Lara asks.
"Ghosts and their variants are a real pain to deal with. They're immune to a lot of different things. The highest level requires magic to defeat them. So most humans are basically screwed if they come across one. You can use Silver Powder, True Holy Water, not the fake stuff that you find in almost every church nowadays, and Silver Swords can work as well. Though without magic, it's not going to be an easy fight. Basically, all other forms of attacks are useless against a spirit, as they can just phase through almost any attack. They can also go invisible at will and will only become tangible and visible one second before they attack. For most, that isn't enough time to react," I explain.
"What about Silver Bullets?" Lara asks while gesturing to her pistols.
"You can use them, sure, but they won't be that viable. It would take hundreds, if not thousands, of bullets to take down the average ghost, and that assumes you can hit them reliably. And many spirits are smart enough to adapt to how you fight if it takes that long. Then you also have to consider that they aren't stupid; they can and will retreat to recover and return to strike when you aren't expecting. Spirit-type undead are by far the most vindictive type of undead. If you become an enemy of a spirit, you can be certain they won't rest until either you are dead or they are destroyed. The only worse kind of undead would be a Revenant. If you anger one of them, then good luck, they are basically powered by anger and hatred, so the stronger you resist or the longer it takes to kill you, the stronger they become," I warn.
"That doesn't sound pleasant," Lara says with a slight frown.
"You shouldn't have to worry about it that much, as undead are fairly uncommon. As long as someone isn't killed in a really bad way and the remains are then never properly buried, they usually can't exist. There are exceptions, but that is the basic gist. Just avoid killing someone who hates you strongly in an extra cruel way, and you should be fine," I reply.
Lara nods a bit absentmindedly, likely thinking back on her life to make sure she didn't do so at any point.
"Oh, and mummies. Respect Mummies, they can and will curse you if you disturb them. Though that in and of itself is really rare, as Mummies are rarely born due to the extreme care the societies take when dealing with undead like that," I add as we arrive at the true end of the tunnels.
Lara seems lost in thought, so I start looking around for what we were looking for, and it doesn't take me that long, as the stone coffin was the most prominent in the chamber. I open the coffin and see a shield with an inscription upon it. It was at this point that Lara snapped out of her daze and came over. I hand her the shield after taking a few pictures. Lara starts looking at the shield closely, and she starts to write down the translation.
Snap
I look away from everyone towards where I felt the triggering of my magical wards.
"What is it?" Lucy asks while staring in the same direction.
"Someone broke into our rooms and is now murdering the pillows we set up there. I guess it was a good idea to store our stuff in our backup hotel room," I reply with my eyes closed as I watch the agents rip through the hotel room looking for us.
"I've translated everything, and I know where to go now," Lara speaks up.
"Good, then let's skip town..." I say, but then pause and focus more.
"What now?" Lara asks cautiously.
"I... I see West, but he looks a bit off, and he's with the agents trying to kill Lucy and me. I was mistaken about them wanting you dead; they shot darts into your bed," I say as I open my eyes.
"West is working with them?" Lara says with narrowed eyes.
"Looks like it, the question is who are they?" I ask.
"Perhaps a remnant of the Illuminati," Lara suggests.
"Hmm, maybe. Want me to set off the explosives? I've already confirmed that no innocents are in the area," I offer.
"No, not yet. Not until I can speak with West and figure out who is behind this," Lara replies.
"How are you going to do that? Turn yourself in?" I joke.
She looks at me.
"No, no way, it's way too dangerous!" I refuse while shaking my head.
"They want me alive for something, and I'm sure you can keep me safe," Lara replies.
"What I observed is conjecture. We can't be certain what their motives are, nor can I be certain I can get to you fast enough to save you," I refute.
"Come along invisibly," Lara suggests.
"No, we're dealing with an unknown enemy," I firmly shut her down.
"Please! Won't you do it for me?" Lara pleads.
I avoid eye contact.
"Sigh. Fine, but if we're doing this, we're doing it my way," I relent.
"Thanks, Rio!" Lara says while hugging me.
Though as soon as she lets go and takes a step back, she trips and falls again, this time she doesn't recover.
"How's the weather down there?" I joke as I help her stand back up.
"Huh, I don't even know what I tripped on," Lara says with confusion.