Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

[Arc 15] Ch. 10 Crystal Skull

[Kaina]

"They stopped..." I looked around and didn't see any more Zombies approaching us... they just stopped and backed up. I worked up a good sweat due to the endless waves but I was expecting much more before they stopped sieging us. Instead, they just stopped as if by some order.

"Someone is coming." I could feel the presence of a massive spike in malevolent magic. It assaulted all my senses. It was course against my skin like the cold hard ground during winter. The smell was acrid and smokey as if it had been on fire. I could practically hear the crackling of the magic itself in the air as it grew closer.

Amanda stood in front of the middle door and the undead that stood in front of it melted into black smoke as a great demon and Alpha walked beside him.

"Your friends are here, fox." the demon specter growled. "As you can see they are not so easy to harm."

"Traitor!" Becky declared.

"Careful of your bark worm. The deal I stuck with the fox is the reason I have not struck you down myself." The demon warned.

"Deal? What deal?" Amanda asked.

"A deal that just saved your lives. Hey Doc, I need one of your crystals, one with a big capacity if you would be so kind." Alpha said.

"Is that one not enough?" the demon pointed at the crystal skull that Jekyll had been refining. Now it was a murky greenish color almost like a natural dungeon core.

"I'll triple what I was going to pay you for saving my life. And throw in a dungeon core the size of your head when we get back to Galavan." Alpha offered. I don't know what he was going to pay Jekyll for fixing the hole in his neck, but a dungeon core fragment was no small thing to trade not to mention a whole dungeon of that size.

"Alright, but if the templars get involved. I had nothing to do with this." Jekyll tossed Alpha the crystal skull.

"You never have anything to do with anything. I remember, no glory means no unwanted eyes." Alpha caught the skull.

"Glory is too troublesome, you taught me that." Jekyll shook his head. "The last thing I need are countries trying to contract me every time I stay in one place too long." Then he walked over and grabbed Tali's hand. "Besides, I have all the glory I need."

"Ya, ya, quit showing off." Alpha said. "Some of us to get to hold hands with pretty girls, we just get our teeth kicked in instead." He pulled out a wand made of some kind of dark metal and summoned a fine beam of light. He then began to change the symbol on the front and etched many more symbols into it.

He held it up to the demon, "Just touch it and imagine entering it with all your power and practice the technique I taught you. It should take anywhere from three months to three years to master depending on your skill. And I'll check in periodically to check your progress."

"You better hold up your end of the deal, fox." The demon growled. He touched the skull and turned into black smoke. The smoke was then sucked into the eyes and mouth of the skull. The same thing happened with the rest of the undead.

"Alpha, what did you do?" Amanda asked as Alpha stood there with a glowing red skull.

"Festering dungeons are as annoying as the journey to the Fels. You can't just beat the boss and break the core. So I struck a deal." Alpha said.

"Ya that's all well and good we should leave before-" Jekyll said as the building started to shake and fall apart. "- the building collapses in on itself!"