The Messenger of Death

"Oh, Goosebumps," Drake muttered when he looked into the grave.

"I feel like I should stay out here and guard the entrance, you know?" Drake unnecessarily volunteered.

"Why? Is the almighty Drake scared of going into the tomb?" Katherine teased.

"Scared? Me Scared?" Drake scoffed and stepped on the first step of the stairway in the grave. "I put the scar in the word scared. If I was scared do you think I would confidently step on this stairway firs-"

-Thud!

Katherine kicked Drake down the stairway.

"Ahhh!!" Drake gave a high pitched scream as he rolled down the stairs.

"That was a little harsh," Adrian muttered.

"Do you want to go down the stairs the same way he did?" Katherine asked with an innocent smile on her face.

"Forget I said anything." Adrian willingly started descending the stairs in the grave.

Camron chuckled and followed behind him, so did Emma. Katherine followed after that.

"System, search for QI energy and other energy of similar radiation. Filter out the most common waves of QI energy and ignore them, then notify me when you have something.

*Commencing search as directed by the user, using wavelength and thermo recognition to carry out the search.

"Alex, aren't you coming in?" Katherine stopped and looked behind her, she smirked when she saw Alex still standing at the entrance. "Don't tell me that you are also scared of the tomb as Drake is? Do you want me to hold your hand while we're inside?" She glinted with excitement in her eyes.

"Nice try. I was just lost in my thoughts, I don't need to hold hands." Alex smirked back at her and started to descend the stairway too.

['If only I was in control, I would have played the damsel in distress.'] Al commented and sighed.

['I curse you to damnation Al.'] Al shook his head at the thought of his alter.

['The worries of a man cannot be understood by a boy.'] Al retorted.

['Indeed.']

Roughly an hour had passed by the time they reached the end of the stairway. They had been descending slowly. Drake reached the end earlier than they did. The moment that he noticed that he was in the tomb, he played dead.

"Drake?" Emma called gently. She was the first to notice him lying on the dust-filled floor.

He opened one eye and pouted. "What took you guys so long to get here? I've been in this position for so long that I could almost hear the dead people here talking." He sat up and looked at Katherine.

"You ugly wench, do you know to have respect for the dead. What if I get haunted because of your stupidity?" Drake insulted her.

"Me, stupid? I swear you are lucky that you are stronger than I am now. I would have redesigned your ugly face with my fist. Just wait till I catch up to your cultivation, I will make you regret saying that." Katherine growled at him when she was done threatening.

"Dream on," Drake mocked.

"You know what? I call dibs on the next pill or miracle fruit that we find." Katherine announced.

"What!? You can't do that, we have to pick sticks, right?" He glanced at Camron and Alex, waiting for them to tell him that he was right.

"I don't know." Alex shrugged his shoulders.

"I also don't know." Camron scratched the back of his head and turned his attention elsewhere.

Drake gulped down in fear of that happening.

"Write a will, my friend, I'll make sure to fulfill your wishes after your death." Adrian placed his hand on his shoulder.

At the foot of the stairway, there were 3 different halls that had torches that were already lit. The inside of the grave was like a citadel, the ceiling was so high that if they didn't come in from the grave, they would have thought they had mistakenly entered a castle.

Even if the place had been existing for over a mega annum, the walls of the tomb were still firm and strong. The stench that was in the tomb and the dust in the air helped confirm to them that they were indeed in the tomb…

Alex brought out the map that Andrea gave to him. He unfolded it and took a look at where they were so that he could decide where they were going to head to, next. Camron joined him and observed the map.

"If we go through the middle hallway then we will arrive at a place in the map that is labeled as the treasury. And the middle one has less red marks than the rest." Alex pointed out.

['Is that the right choice?'] Al asked.

['It doesn't really matter, does it? All I need to do is walk around and wait for the system to notify me when it has found something. The path that I take wouldn't matter because I will still come back and check the rest out. I plan on sweeping the whole tomb.'] Alex answered.

['True. Hmmm, is this how you feel whenever I give you good replies and great advice? Sooo… disgusting, no wonder you don't like me. If I was you I wouldn't like me.'] Al commented.

"Glad you know," Alex said out loud.

"Huh?!" His teammates reacted to his comment.

"Nobody said anything…" Adrian glanced at everyone after he mentioned that.

"Oh really, I was lost in my thoughts and I thought I heard one of you speak." Alex lied.

"You see, it's starting to happen. This is the begging before the end, he can already hear the souls of the dead people here, speak. Let's leave this place, when they are done with their mission we can meet up with them and tell them that we couldn't find anything useful in the tomb, and we still get a part of their reward for the mission they complete. If we stay here any longer, we might meet zombies or ghosts on the way, or creatures like those berserkers we encountered in the Agelong forest." Drake's comment made everyone there flinch, including himself.

The hair on their arms and neck stood erect as they could feel something crawl up their backs.

"Shut the f*ck up Drake, many people have been here and they haven't seen or came across anything like that, why do you have to remind us of those dreadful things and pass your fear onto us!!? Do you think that this will be enough to stop us from searching?! Dream on, I'm getting a miracle fruit regardless of your fears!" Katherine snapped at him after a while in retrospection of the experience she had in the Agelong forest.

She started walking towards the hall in the middle and stopped when she was at the front of the entrance. "Are guys coming or what!? Or you all are now pussies like Drake?!" She looked behind and mocked.

['A feisty one, me like.'] Al uttered.

['Ignore him, ignore him, he is a mutt of doubtful pedigree.'] Alex kept on chanting in his head as he made his way to the entrance of the third hall. Everyone but Drake followed after him.

"I'll take the lead, I know where the traps are so you guys just need to follow my footsteps," Alex stated and took the lead.

"So you guys are not going to listen to my opinions!?" He shouted from behind as he watched his teammates walk deeper into the hall.

-Squeak!!

Drake heard the squeak of a rat and jolted up into the air in fear. His heart started to beat fast as he looked at his surroundings. An unsettling Breeze came from the direction of the stairway that they came in from and increased the feeling of fear in Drake.

"Guys!!" He called out but none of them responded.

When Drake couldn't take it anymore, he went after them as fast as he could.

"I can't believe you guys left me behind." He said breathily as he caught up with them.

"I can't believe you made it this far without triggering any of the traps in the hallway. I wish you did." Katherine muttered as she threw a scornful glance at him…

The seraphim team continued to roam the mapped areas of the tomb for hours. They had been walking and they still couldn't find anything. They covered everywhere that the middle and right hall lead them to, but they still couldn't find anything but dust and dead rats.

"We have been walking for hours and still haven't seen anything, can't we just call it a day and give up?" Drake whispered, but his voice was still audible enough for them to hear. He didn't want to speak loudly so that his voice wouldn't echo and wake the ghosts in the tomb – so he said.

"You can head back on your own, we'll meet up with you when we are done." Alex replied.

The hall that they were walking through now was the last one. That is the hall by the left part of the foot of the stairway into the grave. It was also the hall that had the most-red marks on the map, it was the hall with the most traps.

Drake looked behind at the empty hall, he was weighing his chances of being able to head back alone. "I think not." Drake gave up on that thought.