“Don’t let her know she was right or it will make her ego inflate more.” Kalyani looked amused for a moment but even she knew that Bryony was hardly ever wrong. It was just within the oracle’s prophecies to know what would be… Yet here they were falling right into her trap.

After she woke up she nodded and watched as he heaved breaths of air. He needed that moment greatly as her feet touched the ground. She had a little limp but it didn’t appear to be hindering her too much. She was distracted for a moment but his voice brought her back as she turned to him and tilted her head. “What do you mean?” Then he continued and it made her jump.

Her hand came up just a little too fast for her to think about it as she slapped him hard. There was shock written on her face but took no time at all for her pull him to her and kiss him back. It was completely the wrong time for this, but they were stubborn in nature… and probably had a lot of impulse in them as well. Zanar picked her up and put her against the cool sandstone behind her.

Click

Kalyani pulled her head back from him and her ears heard what his couldn’t. “Zanar… RUN.” She fought her way out of his arms and pulled him with her. Her limp began to act up and she pushed him ahead as she fought to keep up. There was no time for him to stop and help her. There was a massive boulder coming down a shute chasing after them. “THERE!” It was a room up ahead.

There was an uff as Kalyani tripped over herself. She sent a gust of wind ahead of her to push Zanar the rest of the way to the door. The door had been closing and there wasn’t enough time for her to be helped and them to make it. This was a risky move and she knew it. She looked behind her at the boulder seemingly too close for comfort. “Ok… Ok…” The door was shut now but she teleported herself on accident right on top of Zanar. “GAH!”

It had been far too long since she used her magic. “Do me a favor the next time you think it’s a good idea we attempt to consummate whatever we have. DO NOT do it in a trap-filled room…” She was breathing heavily from so much magic as she pulled herself up. “Ever since I met you… It has been a string of bad luck.” She wagged her finger at him and laughed to show she didn’t really regret it. “I didn't know if that would work or not.”

I deserved that one

He thought as he felt her hand come across his face. Before he could say anything else or even think anything else she had pulled him back and returned the kiss. Of all the places in the world, an undead-infested pyramid was one place he never thought. He let the moment and rush of emotion get to him as he picked her up and pushed her back into the limestone.

He did not hear or feel anything move, but the moment was cut short when Kaylani pulled away and told them to run. She easily got out of his grasp and dragged him along with her, and he looked back to see a large boulder slam down onto the ground and started to roll towards them. The floor had just the perfect incline which made the boulder slowly pick up the momentum.

He started to run ahead of her, due to her injury and felt her hand slip as she tripped. He tried to turn heel to get back to her, yet was thrown through the open door by a large gust of wind. Landing on his back he coughed as the wind was completely knocked out from him. He could only hear the door slam shut as. He had just warned her of self-sacrifice and she goes ahead and ignored what he said.

Before he could get back up to his feet Kaylani appeared above him and few inches and fell on top of him. This, again, knocked the wind out of him and he just laid there catching his breath after the ordeal. Teleportation magic, she better not have just got lucky!!

"Can blame a guy now can you? Also, what did I tell you about sacrificing yourself?!" He chastised her as he laid there. She made a joke about their luck ever since they met, and he just shook his head a little. "Well at least you can say you had some fun in it, better than living alone is it not?"
So she did just get lucky… He thought to himself.

He finally was able to get up and helped Kaylani completely to her feet as well. "Either way, nice thinking back there." He looked around the room they were in. It was a little more decorative than the hall they were in. Also, skeletal remains were around them as well. Markings of what appeared to be scarabs were etched into the walls. "Strange room this is, wouldn't you agree?" He caught a glimpse of something glimmering in the torchlight out of the corner of his eye.

He looked over and saw a blade on the ground, curved near the top of the blade but straight on the lower half. A kopesh used often in desert-dwelling areas. The blade itself had a strange aura coming off of it, and it was still in near pristine condition. There was also a necklace in the grasp of the skeletal hand that was near the sword. Marked with a scarab just like the walls.

He grabbed both items of interest and turned to face Kaylani. "Strange, both of these items are in fair condition for what seems like an ancient structure..maybe there are properties to them we know not of?" He questioned.

Kalyani listened to him and started to laugh. “No, I suppose I cannot. Also, I was fairly certain it would work. If you had stopped to get me we wouldn’t have made it.” She wagged her finger at him some more. “I had to chance it.” Tilting her head she softly nodded. “Yeah, can’t say I want to go back to being alone again.” With him, she felt like she could be a little less stubborn than normal. “But that means that I will be hard on you. If you try to leave I will be very upset.” She wagged her finger some more.

She took hold of his arms as he pulled her up. “Thank you, Bryony taught me to think on my feet… as well as apparently off my feet.” She moved around the room and tilted her head. “It’s a burial chamber. Back in the ancient days, they would bury their dead with valuables…” Once he found the items she tilted her head. “Items just like those. I wouldn’t touch that sword’s edge if I were you… It’s got a deadly enchantment on it.”

As for the necklace before she had never seen such a beautiful choker. “The gems in it… They are wonderfully crafted…” The gold was so finally formed and the gems were crafted with care. She could tell they were emeralds in the dim light as her small fingers moved over the gems. “They are enchanted both of them… Enchantments tend to make items live longer without tarnishing. You’ve found some very special treasure. However, it has been at a price. I think we’ve gone deeper into the bottom of the pyramid… We’re supposed to be climbing it. Not that we had a choice.”

After a few moments, she bounced on her toes as she contemplated something. Her actions were quick but she moved the weapon aside and pushed herself up kissing him gently. It was less overwhelming than before so she could be on her toes in this place. “Thank you for worrying about me. I’ll try not to do it as long as you try to do the same.”

She put her hands up to his face cupping his cheeks. “Promise me that you will be even more careful than I am. You are human and that makes you fragile. To be honest, I think that scares me more than this dumb pyramid.” Her hands moved up and she let her fingers go through his hair. “I’m scared you are going to get hurt and I’m not going to be able to bring you back from that edge. I know it sounds bad but it was the first thing that crossed my mind when you kissed me.” She frowned a bit. “I am scared of your mortality.” She put her forehead onto his chin being as short as she was. “I’ve never cared about anyone before so this scares me.” She was free to tell him her fears here… They were alone and no one could hear this weakness of hers.

“You try to tell anyone what I just said and I’ll smack you into next week with a skillet.” Kalyani smiled at him and laughed full-heartedly.

The warning he would take to heart about the weapon, yet it was probably something he could make use of. Though he had trained more with katanas he was sure that he could handle this weapon with a few days of practice. "Well, I guess this enchantment will be on our side from now on then. Never hurts to have a back-up. I'm sure Vox won't fail me though."

He didn't have the eye for the details of the things like she did. He figured this chamber was of some importance but didn't figure it was a burial chamber. There were probably more of these littered throughout the pyramid, and probably the goal of most adventurers. Their goal was to stop the curse, looting would have to take a lesser priority.

"Yes but thankfully layouts for these structures have steep inclines as passages, so getting to the higher floors won't take as much time as getting to the structure itself."
As he was contemplating where to go and what to look out for, he felt Kaylani push the weapon out of her way and kiss him once more. Took him by shock still, but nowhere near as much as the first time. She thanked him and he just smiled at her. "I promise you that. And worrying about you, I guess our time together just made me see you in a different light."

This person in front of him though, hands cupped to his cheeks, was someone he did not recognize. Was this who she was when the walls started to crumble? He understood her fears and her worry. He did not have the bloodlines that flowed through her veins, and he was even weaker than most humans and susceptible to magical backlash more than most. He kissed the top of her head.

"You are right to worry, I would if I were in your shoes." He stated truthfully, "But I swear to you, that I won't let my human frailty keep you alone, after opening yourself up to me like you did." He laughed and smiled back when she mentioned the skillet, her signature weapon.

"Oh, I most definitely do not want to be on the receiving end of that skillet of yours."

He tucked the kopesh into his belt as well as he could and then went behind Kaylani and hooked the choker around her neck. "The blade is mine, this choker is yours, I'm sure you'll be able to find out what it can do for you. Maybe it will save us in here." He made his way to the exit of the burial chamber, making sure to keep an eye out for any traps.

"Now let us finish this, or do what we can, and both come out of it in one piece"

“Oh no, I imagine that this weapon will be useful if we ever have to interrogate someone.” Gods help any man or woman that pissed Kalyani off. Her mind was rather devilish at times. “I imagine it is a good tool for cutting off airways. Not having air to breathe tends to make people more willing to talk.” At the thought of Vox, she chuckled. “It hasn’t failed you yet but there will be some enemies that disrupting their mana flow won’t help with… This will help with that. We will have all of our bases covered.” If they were going to hunt down bad people might as well make sure they have all of it covered.

Kalyani nodded at his thought process. “Seems like a good point to have. I would have never figured it out. Granted we must not set off any more traps or we could end up back at the bottom or worse… dead.” She chuckled a bit as she kissed him again. “I'm just glad my personality hasn’t run you out yet. Not many people have the balls to deal with me and stand up to me.” She chuckled a bit. Especially remembering how he reacted when she had him against the wall naked before. Granted that had just been a game but he stood up to her where others probably wouldn’t have.

When things took a somber turn she gave a light smile as he kissed the top of her head. “Good… because I would probably bring you back and kick you in the shins for leaving me.” There they were laughing in a damn pyramid over something that quite honestly probably mattered more to them than why they were there. “I’ll remember that.”

She moved her hair out of the way as he put it around her neck. Her amber eyes moved down to it as she admired how it looked against her dark skin. “Hopefully I figure out what it does.” She chuckled a bit. “Finish what we can so we can get the hell out of here.” She said with him as she kept by his side. Without her skillet, she now had no weapon but her magic.

She wasn’t sure what magic would do against beings like this but they fought their way to the top. They had a minor run-in with the damn mummies and traps but once they got to the center… The game changed. “Zanar,” her voice was hushed as she looked towards a figure sitting on a throne at the epicenter of the rushing souls. “Be careful… I don’t know how much use I am going to be here…” She could see the giant ruby surging with energy above the lich.

As they proceeded, it seemed like the undead forces got stronger and stronger. They were feeding on the every growing energy from the crystal. The crystal itself was also feeding upon the pyramid as tendrils of ruby were lining the walls and floors of the structure the closer they got to the center of it. Now he had to also watch over Kaylani as she was now using magic to defend herself. He knew elves had a decent reservoir of mana in them but with how many they were fighting she could push herself past that, as he did not know a thing about Rosenite.

They finally reached the throne room, and within it, the ruby lit the whole room up in its crimson glow. A throne sat just before it and Zanar could barely make out the figure in it. The keeper? He thought to himself. He then tried to activate the mana in his eyes to see if it was tied to the crystal, but was immediately hit with an aura wave and brought his hand to his eyes to shield it.

"This is…how the hell," He said fear obviously struck in his voice as he brought down his hand. What seemed like a tear of blood came down from his right eye, the result of the strong aura that was in the room. "The crystal is the key…but something…" He didn't know how to explain it, but they needed to act and quick. He took out a throwing dagger from an inner sleeve of his coat and threw it the crystal, just to gauge its toughness. When it struck a loud shrill rang throughout the air.

Disoriented he did not see the figure disappear from its throne and appear before the swordsman. The only thing he knew was he felt a boney palm strike his chest as he flew back into the wall. The wind knocked out of him once again he looked up to see the lich turn to try and strike Kaylani as well. Instinct immediately took over Zanar and he activated both a greater agility spell and strength spell, the feedback on his body was intense but it let him run up and drive his katana through the lich's torso.

The blad'es own effect activated on Lich, but he knew it wouldn't be long before it regained its composure and struck at them again. "The crystal!! We need to destroy it and quickly!," he yelled to Kaylani. He had to distract the undead lord, he only hoped that her magic could break the crystal itself.

Kalyani was frozen in her tracks as she stared at the mighty ruby. The malevolent energy coming from it had her shaking. She had never felt anything like that in her life. The dinging from the ruby as the dagger hit even made her head hurt. The sound reverberated off the pyramid walls as she slipped a bit. It was enough to make her eyes see specks of different colors. She could literally hear the colors thanks to the dagger. This ruby was going to be the toughest part of everything.

“ZANAR LOOK OUT!” It was too late as the lich priest appeared before him. He hit Zanar hard and she let out a scream as she tried to run over to him. He was so fragile, this was playing into her fear so much so that she didn’t even see the lich coming for her. Zanar’s quick movements washed a sense of relief over to her as she realized the danger she had put herself in. Her mind began to clam and she realized that even though he was quite fragile, he was still strong enough for this task.

“Keep him busy,” she didn’t need to tell him that. She looking for something hard and settled for a good strong piece of the throne. Over the course of centuries, it must have broken off. She began to scale the walls and centerpiece of the room as she made her way up to the ruby. It was so massive that she was able to plop herself up on top of it. The uneasy energy around her made her black hair practically float like she was in water. She began to beat the ruby with a resonating force. It was enough that when she finally put a crack in it, the sound it made filled the room.

The lich put his attention on her and flung magic up her way but she was able to dodge it fairly easily. “I need him off my back… rubies are strong but they aren’t the strongest force in the world.”

The Lich obviously did not like the effects of the blade cause he immediately tries to backhand Zanar, but thanks to the great agility spell he managed to duck under the attack and pull Vox from the creature. He saw Kaylani run to the ruby and started to whack at it. The creature tried to turn his attention to her, but Zanar stood in front of him and held his blade out towards him. "Face me lich." The fear that once struck his body was gone, for he had something to protect now. How foolish was he to let this putrid aura get to him when they first entered.

The Lich immediately responds with what seemed like a bestial roar and gathered what seemed like dark energy in its palms shooting it out at Zanar. He managed to roll under them and struck out at the lich with an upper slash. The blade hit nothing as the creature turned into a torrent of sand and flew behind him and formed again behind him kicking the swordsman down again.

It gave it time to try and strike out at Kaylani as Zanar recovered from the feint. "Just focus on it, this abomination will trouble you no more." He had a plan, but if it didn't work the feedback would tear his body apart. He threw another dagger, this time it landing square in the back of the undead lord. It turned to roar and throw another bolt of dark magic at Zanar, but Zanar had anticipated this and used his speed to get up close and under its field of vision.

"I'll be borrowing some of that magic." A faint blue glow covered the swordsman's hand and he planted it right into the rotting chest of the lich. Absorbing some of its mana into his own body, it was a putrid dark mana, but it resupplied him enough to do what he needed. Quickly he back peddled and held his blade out in front of him.

"Heavenly lights, imbue this blade."

Moving his index and middle finger along the side of the blade a holy light enveloped it and bound with the dark natural energies of the blade. This gave the blade a dark light glow to it. "Let's see if you can handle both light and dark!!" A flurry of quick precise strikes came from as Zanar put it all into them. He only hoped it was enough as he would be completely drained after this all out attack.

Kalyani worked on the ruby. What appeared to be a tough outer shell was really nothing like that at all. The amount of spirits that it had been collecting had made it rather brittle. Once she peeled off a layer of the ruby she threw it over the side at the lich with expert aiming. “BE CAREFUL ZAN!” Kalyani yelled down at him as she ran back to her little hole.

It appeared that it was slowly closing on her as she stuck her hand in it. “Ok… here we go.” Her plant body began to expand from her arm, this was the quickest way that she could see blowing the damn thing up. She, however, ran into a small tiny problem. The souls of the gem wouldn’t allow her to break it more than a few cracks.

“COME ON DAMN YOU,” She beat the ruby with her free hand before pressing her hand onto it. An incantation began to leave her lips. It was loud and powerful as the whole pyramid began to shake. The ruby began to crack… the reverberations coming from the ruby itself sent the chunks flying.

The lich screamed in her direction giving Zanar the perfect opportunity. Though without the ruby it wouldn’t be able to reform. Finally using the plant vines from herself she managed to finish splitting the ruby. Though as she stood on the base of what held it up she got dizzy… She began to plummet off the side of it towards the cold stone ground. The entire pyramid began to shake once the loss of the ruby finally resonated throughout the entire building. Kalyani groaned a bit. "We need to go… I think it's coming down."

He spun around with a clean horizontal slash to the lich’s waistline when he saw the piece of the crystal coming down at the creature. He stopped immediately in his tracks and jumped back as it made contact, shrapnel pieces of the ruby whizzing by his face. Nice shot he thought to himself as he fell to his knees. He was completely exhausted and the magic that he had cast was starting to fall off. Yet it still wasn’t enough, as the lich started once again to rebuild itself.

As the lich was approaching Zanar, the pyramid started to shake and Zanar looked up to see the final moments as the ruby shattered completely. The High priest immediately knew and turned to watch as his anchor to the world was cut off. Screaming and leaving his blind spot open, Zanar took advantage of it. With a quick stroke of his blade, the lich’s head came off his shoulders and the body collapsed with no sign of life anymore flowing through it.

The air of the pyramid also changed as whatever that crystal was anchoring to the physical world, was starting to return. The foulness and putridness of the air started to disappear as well. He looked up at Kaylani and saw her fall from the crystal. “God damn it,” He said to himself and ran to her before she made contact and caught her. The momentum of her fall made his knees buckle but he still managed to hold his ground.

“Yes I believe you are right, we are done here,” He stated as the limestone and granite started to fall around them. She was probably exhausted from using whatever magic she had to destroy the crystal and he still had some time left on his agility spell. “Well, it seems we will be leaving the same way we entered. Hold on tightly,” He said and started to run through the complex to the entrance of Pyramid.