Zombie Business [Mission; Private; Sloth]

Alek wasn't unused to having to deal with necromancy. In fact, throughout his journey through the 'dungeon' as he had come to call it, he had fought skeletons and hell beasts and things that nobody should ever have to deal with. 

It was this reason that, as he continued his walk into town, he wasn't scared as he found a man standing at the cemetery gates. The man was wearing some sort of large overalls, and was standing at the front of the gate. 

The amount of time that he had spent doing that wood-gathering mission for the old man now seemed... worrying, considering the fact that the night had already come down upon their heads. 

It was a good pay-check, something they could no doubt use when they finally got to meet this strange mistress that Yaku had talked about, but still... he felt uncomfortable leaving him alone for this long. If he wasn't wearing the magic carpet as part of his clothes, he would likely have gone so far outside of Alek's knowledge that he'd never be able to see him again. 

It was going to be a challenge to get back as it was, he might even need to borrow a horse or something... Anyway, as he walked towards the man in the great coat, he forced a taut smile onto his face. 

"Excuse me, my good sir, but I think the gates closed a couple of hours ago. Are you sure you should still be out here?"

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Dynatos had tagged along with Alekzander; for what reason he has no idea. Considering that the young Fanalis seemed headstrong among other things made Dynatos feel a bit ashamed to be around him. Not to say he didn't like him it was just that the young man was one reason Fanalis were given a bad reputation. Although he was far better than most other Fanalis he still displayed a side with lack of decorum.

Amira and Yakuroro were probably the man reason Dynatos was here. They stressed the fact to him that he and Alek were both Fanalis men and should share some kind of bond since they were some kind of kin, maybe 'cousins' way way way down the line somewhere. Dynatos let out a heavy sigh while continuing on towards the cemetery.

Dynatos spotted a man in overalls standing in front of the Entrance Gates that had to be closed for a couple hours now. As they got closer Dynatos noticed that the man had a strange scent behind him, but assumed he had been drunk and had vomited or something. When Alekzander approached the man with his classic 'strained smile' it was pretty funny to Dynatos. None the less he was curious to hear the mans response to the question presented by Alekzander.

216/1000

A lack of decorum? Pish posh, Alek could be highly civilized when he wanted to. He was a charming, intelligent man after all - There were, however, times when that seemed to matter about as much as being nice to a fly. Why bother being gentlemanly to someone that seemed to be creeping around a graveyard for example? 

He would have said as such if Dyn had so much as informed him about that specific little line of thought of his. Still, there was something about the boy that he didn't like whatsoever. His sister was beautiful, and to be fair, Dyn was pretty cute. Not in the kind of way that Alek would like to flirt with, but in the kind where he wanted to act like a big brother to him. 

However, it was his personality that he had an issue with. Always judging other people, giving him this filthy little shit-eating look. 

If it wasn't for the fact that he liked the boy's sister, the boy would have had to pick his teeth up off of the floor. But, because he didn't want to upset his travelling companions, he had refrained from attacking the annoying son of a bitch. 

The overcoat wearing gentleman seemed to be unknowing about their little conflict, and instead just raised an eyebrow -"Yes, of course I am. I'm the undertaker, I can come and go from here whenever I want to."

Oh... well, that made sense. The man's almost Gothic choice of clothing, his pale and insipid skin color as if he hadn't been out in the sun for a long time and, now that he noticed it, a slight smell of rotting meat; they should have all been clues, but he was so burdened by his fellow Fanalis' presence he hadn't noticed them.

Alek shrugged, about to turn on his heel when the man added "Or, at least, I used to be able to. Since those moans started coming from the crypts, I hate being in there at night. Just freaks me out." Wait... what?

596 / 1000 (+345)

In all honesty Dynatos could care less about how Alekzander felt about him, or the thought that Alekzander had towards him. Dynatos was only here in compliance to Amira and Yakuroro. Despite what the young Fanalis always said he was still a 'wild child' more than anything. It was obvious he didn't like Dynatos, but again Dynatos didn't care. He wasn't liked by many people and Alekzander was another on that list.

Dynatos would enjoy actually having another Fanalos besides his sister around, but if that meant having to deal with someone who put up a facade for others he'd rather not. Yakuroro and Amira both knew about how Dynatos felt about Alekzander eho should know as well. Dynatos had hoped his early judgement of Alekzander was wrong, but as it currently stood they had a long way to go before meeting on common ground. Dynatos shook off the thoughts as the undertaker began to talk.

"Don't you seem to be jumping the gun sir? Is it possible that during the night some kind of Animal gets in there at night and that is the source of the noise you are hearing?" Dynatos tried to come at this situation logically trying not to jump the gun.

420/1000 [ 204 ]

"Those aren't the screams of any animal that I've ever heard." the man said, his voice seeming slightly haunted by his experience. 

"Besides, even if they were, how do you expect them to get into the crypt? The only thing large enough to make a noise like that would be a big cat, and they'd be noticed going in and out of the crypts. 

We don't find them when we go to work in the morning, so it's only during the nights. That means whatever's in there is getting aided to enter and leave. I don't know what it is, but I don't like it."

Something... felt wrong, something felt really, really, wrong. "I'm sorry to ask this, sir, but are there any mages on your staff?" The man nodded, slightly surprised by the question "Yeah... we have a life mage, said that he had some sort of link with bodies. The families love having him around since he seems to make them almost alive again, like they could just walk out of the coffin. Why?" 

Well, that was all the answer that Alek needed. Despite what the boy might have thought about his boysterous nature, he didn't act nearly as energetically as the boy might have expected. Instead...

"Don't worry about this. Me and my..." he seemed to pause for a few seconds 
"'friend' here will take care of it. Non Gratis." The way that he spoke, as if this was just a matter of business, seemed to surprise the man. Or, maybe it was the language 

"Non Grat-what now?"
"It means 'free of charge'. Now come on, Dyn." Grabbing Dyn and pulling him away from the old man, he whispered to him. 

"I think I know what's going on... are you scared by moving corpses?"

893 / 1000

Dynatos listened intently as he always did to the man as he spoke. It was possible that the 'big' cat could have found a hole somewhere and came to take shelter in the crypts at night and left by the morning. Considering the mans level of fright Dynatos felt like it was worth checking out. Though when Alek asked about a Mage being on the staff and the undertaker replying with a 'Yes' and continued on to say that this Mage made it seem like the dead were alive again it made Dynatos begin to wonder about...certain possibilities.

Dynatos was then pulled away from the undertaker by Alek. This was followed by a rather puzzling, but all to fitting question with two words that made all this seem to cliched to be real 'Walking Corpses'. Dynatos looked at Alek square in the eyes and shook his head. "Scared? No Shocked? Yes." He paused looking over in the direction of the crypts. "You think that life Mage has something to do with this right? Cause I was thinking the same thing..." Dynatos looked  back Alek and made a resolution within himself. He was gonna end all this back and forth between the two here. They were Fanalis men after all and in the End somewhere their goals met, so he would use this Job to squash it all like a Imuchakk stepping on a small animal.

655/1000 [ 235 ]

The boy seemed to have a pretty similar line of thought to him. Unfortunately, that was the likeliest thing that could have happened in this situation. 

"Yeah... when I was in the... well, when I was in Magnostadt, I was in this gigantic tower that was filled with corpses. They came alive and started attacking me and my partner. They made noises like the ones he described, so there's a chance that he might have done something similar." 

This was the basic layout of what had happened, and he knew that mentioning that he was an actively serving captain in the Fanalis corps would be dangerous. 

This guy came from Zou, somewhere where the other nations in the world were seen more as rivals than as legitimate parts of the world. History lessons tended to be about how glorious the empire was, rather than about actually documented facts and figures. 

Thus, admitting that he was an actively serving officer in a rival nation's military was not something that would be safe. Yaku was a traveler so he had no allegiance to any nation, but he couldn't say the same about Dyn.. or at least he didn't think that he could say the same. 

Truth being told, he didn't know very much about his fellow man, other than he was judgmental. 

If they were to get into the cemetery, they were going to need to get past the gate. Wrapping an arm around Dyn's chest, he gave a quick warning that he was about to move, before concentrating his strength into his legs and leaping into the air. 

This unbelievable amount of lower-body strength sent him flying a good twenty meters into the air, propelling over the gate and landing halfway between the gate and the mausoleum where the noises had been heard. 

The impact on the other side left a small crater around them, an indent that was going to stay there for a long while. 
"Never ask how I did that. Even I'm not sure of the science behind it."

1000/1000

Dynatos became interested in the thought of a giant tower with the undead to be interesting. He had heard of a tower from some old traveler. He had just shook it off as nothing more than old folklore. Dynatos raised a eyebrow to Alek when he seemed to be thinking about something else as he explained the situation he had that had similar details to this. He started to wonder just where Alek was from and what his story was. When he talked about his encounter it made Dynatos even more suspicious of just what Alek knew and what it was he was trying to hide. Dynatos's thought were interrupted by another flood of sounds coming from the crypt. Dynatos looked back in it's direction for a moment before looking back at Alek. Before he could even blink Alek had grabbed him and jumped high into the air and over the wall before landing on the ground on the other side of the wall.

Dynatos wasn't shocked considering Alek was a Fanalis after all. Neither was he surprised by the crater that was created by the jump. Let's just say Dynatos was not a easily surprised man when it came to the vast majority of people in the world since he had been traveling with Amira since he was 10. Well i guess 'Travel' isn't right more like wandering up until recent years that is. "Considering the height when were at plus our body weight and being pretty much pure muscle its not all to surprising." Dynatos smiled a little bit."Although the Undertaker might be mad that you did this. We could've asked him to open the gate for us." Dynatos laughed to himself, it wouldn't be heard because it was well 'to himself'. Dynatos turned to look around to see if he could spot the source of the noises.

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The boy had a point about the undertaker, but when he pointed that out, Alek just met it with a scornful look. 

"That man has been terrified out of his wits of whatever lurks in the crypt for the last few weeks. If it is what I think it is, then we don't want to have to involve him in this any more than's necessary. 


Besides, what's worse? Knowing you're sending two people off to fight the living dead, or having to clean up a small crater?" 

Whether that little point was thought of as being considerate of other people or whether the man just thought he was being stupid and attempting to get out of trouble was something they would never know as, when they walked forwards, a half-decomposed body began shambling towards them. 

The sight was, quite honestly, grotesque - Rigor mortis had clearly already set in, and the decomposing process had begun so that at parts on the body the bone could be seen through all the flesh. 

However, for the most part, there were still trappings of flesh around the creature's body... basically, it was inherently disgusting, and he shivered as he looked at the thing. This was a debasement of the poor man's corpse. 

"Stand back." was the only warning the boy would get before Alek rushed forwards, his body moving at speeds over five times what a normal human could manage, a single palm moving forwards and slamming into the zombie's stomach. 

Thankfully, his gloves stopped him being able to feel the texture of the thing's stomach as the hand slipped in the semi-flaccid distended stomach.

The damage, which would normally just have paralyzed it, seemed to knock it into multiple pieces, falling down in a spray of gore that thankfully only coated his gauntlet. 

He wasn't a religious person, but there was something about this that made him want to pray for this person's soul to be able to find peace in whatever happened after this life.

Dynatos met Alek's scornful look with a blank one. All that aside Alek had a point. "But sti-" Dynatos was cut short by the groaning of something ahead of them. The noise became louder and true enough there it was a walking corpse. It looked rotted and the smell that came from it was the worst Dynatos had smelled in his life. He felt bad for this person's soul who had probably been tormented by this. Before Dynatos could do anything Alek rushed ahead "re killing" the corpse although dismantling would be a more appropriate word for what he had just done. "Not very sturdy or Fast. I wonder what would posses someone to do this to someones body." Dynatos shook his head of the thoughts and focused on the matter at hand. "Considering the flesh is rotting it would be a safe bet to assume pieces of it have been falling off of the bone. We should be able to follow these pieces and find the person responsible." Dynatos began to follow the trail of rotting flesh that had been on the ground.

Dynatos began to see a light off in the distance and a shadowed figure. That must have been the Mage responsible for all this. Dynatos waved he hand at Alek to get back. Dynatos then moved in closer so that Alek was just out of range from what he was about to do; this of course put the man in his range. Dynatos placed his index finger and thumb at the corners of his mouth and inhaled a deep breath. He then let loose a high pitched whistle. It caused the man to cringe in pain and grip his head, but that was just enough for Alek to make a move. Considering the speed of the Fanalis Alek could close that distance in no time. "Alek your up!" Dynatos  said looking back at Alek.

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This man was curious about what dragged someone to do something like this... Alek had a bad idea, but he didn't want to admit it. Instead, he merely lied to the boy's face. 

"Quite honestly, I don't know why someone would do this. It's demeaning to the dead, and if there is a god I can't help but wonder if a spirit that is forced back into its body is allowed to go there. 


Either way," he said, before following after Dyn ", this is just proof of what I've been saying all along. This place is inhabited by a necromancer, doing this for god knows what reason."

As they continued to move, they eventually found themselves coming across a strange figure who seemed to be behind all of this. He was about to throw himself at the man when he saw what Dyn was doing. What the... he was suddenly glad that he was out of range of that attack, since he could see the man cringing at the whistle. The vocal chords of the Fanalis race were truly something to behold.

As he called him forwards, he ushered the other Fanalis male out of the way as he cleared his throat, opening his windpipe properly and... 

"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" the sound was a single, pure note like something an opera singer might give out. However, if Dyn hadn't followed his advice, he'd find himself with a set of bleeding ears as his eardrums shattered. 

The actual target was caught in the center of the main cone and was physically lifted off his feet and slammed into the tree a good twenty meters behind him, the sickening noise of a wet *crack* hidden underneath the sound of the note. However, the limp body that it resulted in was not so hidden, as the corpse slipped, limp against the cold ground. 

"Enslave someone else's life to your will, lose your own." Alek said as the echoing note seemed to die down. "That's the way that the world works."

Just as soon as he told Alek he was up Dynatos found himself jumping to the side in order to dodge the attack of Alek. It was amazing what the Fanalis could do with their bodies. Dynatos began to wonder why them and the Imuchakk even exist in this world. This is something Dynatos would discover. Dynatos watched as the man was slammed into a large tree and consequentially killed. Dynatos looked back at Alek as he heard his words. "Is that how you truly feel, Alek?" He was reffering the words the young Fanalis just spoke. "I understand you feel a connection in a way to this and the Fanalis, but still..." Dynatos paused and came to a sudden realization from what had just happened and something he heard Alek say before. Alek or someone he knew may have been a slave at some point in time.Dynatos shook off the thought and decided to keep it to himself. He returned to inform the undertaker that the situation had been taken care of.