Stealth was abandoned in favor of haste now. Cairis faced forward only long enough to see Alise raise her fist and swing it sideways into the wall of the narrow passage. Tor pressed himself flat against the wall and gestured urgently for the rest of them to pass him even as he rummaged through his bag for things to trap and slow the pursuing horde.
"No Tor, not here, just RUN!" Tala shrieked, her normally high pitched voice went down an octave or two on the last word as a pulse of magic burst from her. Lightness filled their limbs, and they sped back up the corridor. "Tala they'll be following close!"
"No they won't, not from there," Alise responded calmly, "the passage is going to collapse in a few seconds."
Cairis stared at the Sylvari over his shoulder, "by the Six! why are we not running faster then?"
"Because you bookah are too busy talking thats why!" Tala shouted as she slipped past him and shot around the corner. Cairis didn't feel a rebuttal to that statement would have been appropriate, so he just ran harder.
Alise once again had a conjured flame leaping from the end of her staff, and the sharp chiseled lines that criss-crossed the stone surfaces around them showed in stark relief. "How long have the risen been at this! They must have been here months at least to carve all of this." Tala's voice had a hint of the confused wonder in it that usually signified that her curiosity was about to get the better of her, and get them all killed. Cairis didn't feel like going through that again.
"Tor! You know what to do?"
The Norn didn't bother responding, the giant simply loped up and scooped the diminutive asura up with one hand, the weight of her armor notwithstanding.
"Stop that you ale-drenched buffoon! I need to get a closer look at these markings! No don't run faster I can't..." Tala nearly smacked Tor in the head with the mace she still carried, but the big fellow once again showed his surprising quickness for his size and managed to avoid it. At that moment Cairis began to feel the ground trembling as a roar of crumbling stone broke from behind them. "Alise?!"
"We have gotten far enough! I think... it shouldn't collapse up here at least."
"Not! Encouraging!"
We wasn't sure he could run any faster, but he tried anyway. Ahead of him, Tor was focusing most of his attention on making sure Tala didn't manage to get away or make them both fall. Alise had dropped her flame once more, Cairis hoped she was making sure the earth didn't collapse on top of them anyway. So he was the only one of the group that noticed the risen charging down the corridor straight towards them.
He didn't take the time to think.
His short swords practically leapt into his hands, and he swung forward as if to strike at the Risen that were still quite a bit out of his reach, but nearly upon Tor and Tala. Magic surged around him in a burst of violet haze, and he was suddenly right in front of the charging undead. Though the rotted flesh gave little hint of emotion, Cairis imagined he saw surprise there for the single moment that the head still held to its shoulders. The other undead recovered quickly and attacked, but their strikes landed on nothing but air as their target collapsed into a shower of sparks and fading magic. Behind them, Cairis appeared again, swords already flashing and weaving a blurred path through the air, as much magic as steel. The few attacks the undead managed to return at him went ary thanks to the confusing magic, and the steel of his blades cut through the dead flesh as easily as they had the first target.
Arrows sprouted from several more undead that came barreling down at him, and a moment later cerulean flames erupted from the owl-fletched shafts. Cairis spared a quick glance back to see that Tor had unceremoniously dropped Tala to the stone floor, and while she had not recovered her feet yet, the flames that even now burned the undead to ash told of her return from the brink of scientific insanity. "Tala, more are coming, hold them off while I get us past them!"
"Right, go Cairis!"
The asuran's armor went from a minor glow to blinding brilliance and a loud hum grew with the light. She effortlessly sprung from the ground into a full flip to land on her feet with shield held out and ready. Cairis ducked behind her as the remaining undead charged forward towards the much smaller target. Barely a foot away, a wall of impenetrable magic smashed out from Tala's shield with a sound like a distant thunderclap and the undead flew back to tumble into a heap. Fumbling one of his swords back into its sheath, Cairis knelt briefly and touched the cold stone. A dim glow began to shine from it showing that the magic had taken root. Without letting himself think about what would happen if he made a mistake, he blinked once, twice, then shut his eyes hard. Magic seethed through him, tingling unpleasantly, and around him he could see the world in shades of grey and purple. Alise's sudden gasp of surprise told him that the spell had worked, and he could no longer be seen. He just hoped it was as effective against undead as it was against the living.
With only one way to find out, Cairis ran forwards. The undead had recovered their feet again and were preparing to smash through Tala's barrier as Cairis darted past them. Around him were dozens of the rotted creatures, and he could see even more pouring down the corridors ahead of them. Then from somewhere up ahead, he heard that same hollow voice.
"All will serve Zhaitan in the end... bring the living to understand the truth!"
He gritted his teeth. The voice wasn't coming from the hallway he knew led out, but as long as that wraith commanded the risen, they would never escape alive. He could feel his spell running out, and knew that even with great focus he couldn't maintain the veil for much longer, he had to hurry.
The hallway led to another open chamber, this one barely better than a cave. Stalagmites littered the floor, and Cairis could see several tunnels leading away from it besides the one he just entered from. Risen poured from several, and all were charging straight past him and down towards where his friends were waiting. There are so many... where are they all coming from?!
"I smell your magic... come, embrace Zhaitan's power..."
Cairis barely had time to realize what the voice was saying before the wraith materialized in the air in the middle of the chamber with a bark of magical power. The veil shattered under the blast and sent him flying. His eyes flicked open in time for a massive stalagmite to fill his vision. The blow left him reeling, but he forced himself upright as best he could, gaze darting around the room to find the wraith and whatever risen would now be coming for him. To his surprise, the Wraith had not moved. It still floated near the center of the chamber, looking at him with amusement etched on its unnatural face. Even more surprising was that the last of the risen were even now dashing down the hall he had just left, leaving him alone in the room with the wraith. His wits were still coming back together, and recovering his veil was impossible, but he could still feel the magic he had planted in the stone near his friends. He needed only a few moments to finish the spell.
"Bow to the power of the dragon!" As his thoughts finished, the wraith raised one spectral hand and a wave of darkness and cold rushed towards him. He reacted on instinct and raised his sword in a guard. Magic surged out of it, and the attack that he knew probably should have killed him merely pressed him to his knees. He gasped for breath as piercing, impossible chill stilled his lungs for a moment. But still, he lived, and it seemed that surprised the Wraith. For now it simply floated, expression neutral, staring at the mortal beneath it. Cairis didn't feel like waiting for a better opportunity. Still kneeling, he pressed his palm to the stone, and with a flash of violet brilliance, disappeared through it.
"Pitiful mortal illusions, they are no match for death."
The wraith screamed, and dark power filled the room again, but it faded without revealing the tricksome human. All that remained was a strange glow from the stone. The wraith drifted closer, feeling the magic that had been left behind when it suddenly surged. From the circle of magic lunged a tiny figure clad all in bright and glowing steel, a shining and humming mace in either hand. The wraith shot back away from the strange figure, dodging the blows aimed at it even as the magic circle surged brighter still.
Tala almost jumped through the portal the instant it formed, only Cairis' sudden appearance stopped her. "The wraith! it's ahead of us, we have to kill it or we will never get out of here."
"Kill a wraith? How do you propose that?" Tala snapped back.
"We have killed more than one of them, Tala, they are dangerous, but not invincible." Alise barked out. Cairis looked up at the Sylvari with surprise. The previously implacable smile and quiet demeanor had been replaced by a vicious snarl and battle lust clear in her eyes. "Go, we will follow, smash that abomination!"
The wraith continued to dart away from Tala's mace with seeming amusement. That was until Tor dropped down from above it sword-first. The steel did not exactly bite, but as it passed through the insubstantial corpus of the wraith, it carried some of it away. And the wraith gave a shriek of surprise. It turned to face the Norn with dark power crackling in its arms just as a beam of violet luminescence slammed through it. "Try these 'pitiful mortal illusions' dragonspawn!" Cairis held his greatsword now, the blade shining with power. As Cairis spoke the wraith recoiled once more, three more copies of the human flashed into existence around it. Each bore a sword like the one in his hands, and in unison all swung the charged blades towards the undead creature. It fled away from the questing blades, and ran into the humming mace of Tala. "For Science, monster!" The magic and steel of the weapon smashed into the wraith with the force of a charging bull, with resultant effect. The wraith's essence shredded and scattered as it collapsed near the floor. Almost instantly the scattered pieces began to coalesce and reform, but it was the moment Alise had been waiting for. "For the Pale Tree!"
She shouted, and thrust her staff forward. Floating in the air around her were a dozen stones, broken pieces of stalagmites and assorted rubble. Immediately, the stones flew forward, smashing through the wraith. Cairis' illusions leapt forward to engage the wraith again, and this time their blades struck home. More of the wraith's essence seemed to bleed away into the mists, and its shrieking was nearly constant.
"None can deny the power of Zhaitan!"
"Watch me, dragonspawn!" Alise bellowed out, a roiling ball of flame growing in her hands, "go back to the mists and vanish from Tyria forever!"
The flames washed over the remnants of the wraith with a roar, and when the light had faded the last traces of the creature were already fading away.
"So... another wraith killed to add to your tally, Alise?" Tala asked between heaved breaths.
"Well... the others we killed we had most of a pact army to help... and a lot of weaponry designed to kill them... so I'm rather glad this worked."
"What! You... You stupid plant! You could have gotten us all killed!"
"And if you hadn't gone ahead and jumped in we would all already be dead, Tala" Cairis managed shakily. He was still recovering from the Wraith's initial attack, and at the moment was nothing but grateful for Alise's prior experience.
Tala was about to shout something back at the both of them when the sound of shambling feet began to sound from the tunnel behind them. Tor pointed towards one of the other passages out of the room definitively, then threw a package of something about the size of Cairis' head towards the tunnel entrance that would any moment begin pouring risen into the room. All four of them dove through the dark entrance, behind them the sound of a series of explosions ripped through the air.
"That should slow the horde a bit." Tor muttered, Cairis just prayed to the Six that it would be enough.
After what seemed like hours of sneaking through tunnels and hiding from the now-leaderless and mindless horde of risen, the group emerged from the tunnels to the sun beginning to set.
"Well that was a miserable failure of a venture!" Tala sulked, "not a single relic to show for our efforts!"
"Considering what we found down there, I'm willing to bet any relics we might have uncovered would have drawn dark things on us. Under those circumstances, Tala, I think this is one of the times to be glad we escaped alive and mostly intact."
Tala pulled off her helmet and started to snap something back, but blinked towards the setting sun and sighed instead. "You're right Cairis... really... it's just, I'll never get into that Krewe now! They were counting on this discovery for my entry, and there's no way they will agree now!"
The other three members of the group sighed as Tala began to wail about the misfortune that had denied her the prize she had been seeking. "I'm going to hurry back and get a message to the Pact about this place," Alise remarked as Tala continued her rant, "I only hope we can return fast enough to contain whatever the wraith was trying to accomplish here."
"I will remain here for now and keep an eye on it," Tor replied, "at least then you need not fear for the undead escaping from here and attacking somewhere nearby."
"I suppose then it falls on me to make sure Tala gets safely back to civilization..." Cairis muttered, "way to stick me with the hardest task." the other two coughed and looked away; Tala herself continued to rant, gesticulate, and pace angrily. Despite it all, Cairis managed a smile, "stop in and see me anytime you're in Divinity's Reach, my door is always open to good companions."
"Aye, that we will, Cairis," Tor laughed, the loudest sound he had heard the norn make, "there will be many tales to be told of this adventure."
"I have duties in the pact, but I'm sure I will be able to see you again." Alise smiled back, "and good luck with Tala..."
Cairis chuckled, "it's not the first time... won't be the last either I'm sure."
The sun sank over the horizon as Cairis began to herd the still-ranting asuran towards the distant lights of the nearest town. After the darkness of the caves below, he hardly felt a torch was necessary for the journey.
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