Sin stepped up to the door and laid her hand onto it. No pushing on her end made it budge. The servant Rammed her shoulder against it, to no effect. A low growl escaped her throat as she clenched her hand to a fist and punched against the centre, but all it broke was her hand.

"Stand back, my master." Sin's voice was quiet as she held her now limp right hand, flames beginning to engulf it. She sent out a stream of black fire, and under the relentless heat the door finally acknowledged defeat and crumbled.

Beyond it laid nothing, nothing but darkness. Nothing was visible on the other side. Sin looked back at her master and Maria could see genuine distress in her eyes.

"My master, I have a bad feeling about this." Sin's hands were trembling as she spoke. "It would perhaps be better if we left this be."

"No. We already opened it." Maria limped towards the blackness, her hand clutched tightly to her chest. "If there is something, evil beyond, then it is too late to just let it be."

They looked at each other, then Sin turned her gaze to Hawkes. "If we are not back within thirty minutes, send all of my sisters after us."

Hand in hand they took the last step forward, Maria with her eyes closed. As they entered the dark she could see no light through her eyelids, but after the first step a sense of light had returned.

She opened her eyes just as she heard Sin gasp, and wished she had waited for a moment longer.

But no moment, hour, decade could have prepared her.

They stood in a circular room, made out of the same pure white stone, though Maria could hardly make out the walls around them.

There were too many bodies in the way.

They were all standing, packed so close together that only very narrow paths lead through the mass of flesh. Men women and children, without a strip of cloth on their bodies. All standing upright, heads slumped down they stared at the ground.

With unblinking dead eyes.

Maria immediately tried to surge back, feeling her back against a heavy door that had not been there before. Her body was trembling and she felt about to throw up.

Sin was right at her side and held her close, her eyes darting around the room. "So this is where they all went." She pushed Maria's head against her chest. "We should just leave, my master. I doubt there is anything of value here."

"There is." Maria's voice was near inaudible as she stretched out her hand, pointing towards the opposite wall. Elevated above the maze of bodies were three thrones, and even from the long distance Maria could see the glimmer of gold on the heads of the corpses sitting on them.

"The crowns, Sin. My crowns." Maria took a step forward, though not a second. Her eyes darted from the bodies all around them to the glittering gold in the distance.

"My master, we should perhaps return after Tetra comes here, we can explore it together and be-" Sin's body snapped stiff as Maria clenched her hand.

"No. I need it."

Unable to speak, Sin followed her master. The gap between the bodies was too small for them to walk side by side, they could not help but brush shoulders with the dead.

They walked in absolute silence, painstakingly slow. None of the bodies had begun decomposing, they stood as if their hearts had just now stopped beating, if they even had. Maria did her best to not look at them, to hold her hand back from feeling for a pulse at random.

There was no smell of decay, no, there was no smell whatsoever in the room. How many people were in here? Thousands, it had to be thousands. Maria could make out a staircase leading further up into the tower, were there more levels, all like this? Just how many Ancients had existed?

Her ankle was hurting badly as they finally reached the end of the room, and they saw the podium with the three thrones. Two men and a woman sat upon them, equally unclothed, their heads however not slumped forward, but straight, looking towards the entry door.

Their crowns were beautiful works of art, but Maria only had eyes for the greatest of them that adorned the head of the man on the centre throne. It was made out of silver, and formed to resemble a wreath of roses, with a blooming rose at each cardinal.

She gazed at it with her sight, there was not a trace of magic in the item, no sense of anything in the man that was wearing it.

"Mine." Maria mouthed silently, and reached out her hand to take it. Sin was looking around them, her knuckles white. She was baring her fangs at the silence, the unmoving mass of bodies.

With a shaking hand Maria took the crown off of his head, staring at it more closely. The roses resembled exactly the shape of her family crest, it was incredibly light, and so very beautiful.

She was engrossed in the pristine silver, but did she not notice something, in the corner of her eye? Did the corpse twitch, move a finger? Maria quickly stepped back, shaking as her right ankle gave way under her. She fell back and was caught by Sin just in time.

"Is everything alright my master?" Even now Sin could not speak louder than a whisper, her eyes following the gaze of her master at the now uncrowned corpse.

"I, I thought it moved for a second. It's alright, let's just, let's get out of here." Maria didn't look back, ignoring the searing pain of her ankle she walked down the steps as quickly as she could.

Walking back through the maze of bodies Maria could just not help but feel watched. Her eyes darted around, but there was no movement in sight. Everything was just as it had been, yet the moment she turned her head she could swear that something just out of her vision changed.

She walked faster, and faster, until her body took revenge. She could already see the gate, was only a jump away when her ankle gave way and she fell forward onto the ground.

The crown fell out of her hand and bounced off of the ground three times, rolling down the rows of feet with a deafening sound that tore apart the silence.

Maria's heart stopped for a moment.

But nothing happened.

She ignored Sin's hand and crawled forward to grab the crown, clutching it tightly to her chest. A sigh of relief escaped her as she got back up on her feet, looking back at Sin with a smile.

"I am alright!" She wanted to say. But she couldn't. She could not move her tongue or close her mouth.

Not with everyone's eyes on her.

All that left Maria's mouth was a scream as she backed against the gate, Sin looking at her in confusion and rushing to her side.

"They're coming for me Sin, they're coming for me, protect me, save me!" Maria no longer cared about disturbing anything, not now that they were awake, awake and looking at her.

"My master, nothing is happening, I." Sin's voice lost itself as her master reached out her hand to her, glowing red. "Protect me dammit."

The body of the servant moved on it's own within moments it was coated in fire. She spread the flames across the room, eagerly devouring the bodies of the dead. Their roaring was deafening, and once more Sin's body spurred into action under her masters authority as she broke down the gate and dragged her master back outside.

Maria was still kicking and shaking, to the horror of her retinue as well as Tetra and Armoire that had just returned from their patrol.

"They woke up Sin, they woke up, I'm telling you!" Even now Maria was holding onto the crown for dear life, clutching onto the ornament tightly enough that it was leaving dent marks on her skin.

"My master, please." Sin could barely speak, the lingering shock of her body moving solely to the will of her master still coursed in her. "They were dead, my master. The entire room contained not a trace of magic of any kind, please, your mind is not sound this moment."

Her words had no effect on Maria, who only curled up on the ground harder, holding onto the crown. "They know I took it, they know I am here to take what was theirs. They don't want anyone to have it Sin, why else would it be here? Nobody would want to live here, nobody, nothing COULD live here."

She stared back up at Sin. Was there someone behind her? A figure, one of them?

She blinked frantically, there was nothing. Slowly her breathing returned to normal, and she managed to sit up with Tetra's help.

"You, you need to go through the city, open every one of these doors, and burn down anything that you see." Maria's gaze was glued to the ground as she spoke. "And if you find anything of value or use, then bring it back."

"As you wish, my master. I pray that this can put your mind at ease." Sin quickly turned away to hide her look of worry as she marched off, quickly fading from sight in the maze-like streets.

With her first servant gone, Maria was quickly pincered by Armoire and Tetra who helped her back up onto her shaky feet.

"What was in there, wise master?" Tetra gazed down at the crown that Maria was still holding onto for dear life. "A vault, a throne room?"

Maria only shook her head and leaned into her for support. "A grave. A giant room full of bodies just, standing there and, thrones at the back and."

Stairs.

Her blood froze cold. She stared back at the gaping void, sure that she would see a mass of bodies lurching towards her.

But she only saw blackness, silent, empty blackness where the gate had been.

"Armoire, there's, there's a staircase, it leads up. Go, and anything that, anything that just looks dead, kill it, break it slash it I don't care, and only come back when you are the only thing alive in there!"

Armoire just stared at her master, until the weight of her authority forced her to leave her side. Burning blade in hand she stepped through the dark and vanished.

First then did her strength leave Maria. She fell onto Tetra, hiding her face in her chest and closing her eyes.

Before her waking eye she could still see the room, all the heads turned to face her, the unspeakable stare of thousands of eyes, the completely empty expressions.

"You, you stay by my side, and your protect me." Maria's voice was muffled as tears ran down her face. "You keep me safe, please, please keep me safe."

"Don't let them get me."