“Sindyl, come look at this!” Amy said.

Sin’s group was looking around inside the different buildings together. They hadn’t found much in the first few, other than some architectural differences between the buildings in the House and the buildings in modern society that Feris pointed out. But there were no artifacts or objects well preserved enough to get a clue about the ancient civilisation.

Amy waited for Sin, crouched beside a rusted shield.

Sin crouched beside her.

“It looks like a shield... I think.” She said.

“Yeah! But look closer.”

Sin spent a few more seconds scanning the shield.

Then she noticed what Amy was trying to point out.

“Isn’t that... like a clan insignia?!” Sin exclaimed. She looked closer. “It’s really faded, but you can definitely see the etched outlines! It’s really familiar, even though it’s not exactly the same.”

“You’re right! I didn’t realise it but you’re completely right! I just thought it was a symbol or something useless like an etched memory or something like that, but it makes a lot more sense now that you mentioned it’s familiar.”

“It’s really really familiar... what symbol does that look like though? It’s faded just enough to be difficult to tell... but the outline is definitely similar to one of the clans’ insignia nowadays.”

“It’s a justice clan insignia. Or... something close to it.” Feris said. “Them J clan fuckers are so uppity and prideful that they made themselves a big fuckin castle in the sky, but what do we find here? They were once on the ground, just like the rest of us!”

“Yeah...” Sin deflatingly agreed. She couldn’t openly endorse Feris’s words, but she sure as hell agreed with them. “We’ll use the arcanocrystals to scan it and store its imagery for analysis later.” She said, gesturing at Maya to get the arcanocrystal out of the knapsack.

Maya had been watching in awe. Not in awe at the artifact examination, but in awe at Sin and Amy squatting. They might’ve been in uniform, but Maya’s thoughts still drifted in that direction.

Clearly, they’d distracted her so much that she didn’t hear Sin.

“Maya?”

“Huh? Sorry, butt... what were you saying?” She replied.

“The arcanocrystal please.” Sin said, not realising Maya’s slip up.

“Right, here.”

Maya took the arcanocrystal out of her knapsack and handed it to Sin.

Sin looked at the relatively chunky crystal now in her hands.

It still amazed her that such a marvel of arcane technology was fashioned to be so accessible for even amateur archaeologists. Of course, she wasn’t thinking of herself, but of the price of the buggers. They were most definitely affordable for anyone who’d already earned even just a little coin from doing some work in the field.

Sin recalled how to use the tool, based on the guide in Rodrick’s classroom. They’d only given it a scan yesterday, but Sin tried her best to memorise it.

“So you... flip this tiny lever on the side, aim the hole in the middle towards the object like this... then push this button here.”

The crystal whirred in her hand.

Sin felt the complicated mana mechanisms work within the crystal through her Domain. Compared to how mages used mana to cast spells, the arcanocrystal seemed entirely more complex.

But it worked almost instantly.

Rays of greenish-blue light began scanning up and down, coming out of the hole in the middle of the crystal.

Sin aimed it at the shield.

After a moment, the arcanocrystal made a *baboop* sound. Sin knew that was the cue to aim at the object from another angle.

She asked Amy to move across so she could use her position for it.

Then Sin pushed the button again.

The crystal scanned the shield once more, before making a satisfying *Beep* sound.

That sound meant that the scan was complete.

Sin flipped the lever back to the other side, saving the image under a single directory.

Fortunately, the arcanocrystal had a failsafe function built in.

For each object’s image, it saved an image in its own storage, while popping out a physical backup of the image in another small pebble.

Sin took the pebble out of the bottom of the crystal and stored it in her rings just in case anything went wrong.

“There. Let’s find some more stuff now!” She said, excitedly. “Other than the initial smell, this has been super fun!”

“You’re welcome for that, your highness.”

“Thank you Feris for giving us scented nose filters that I still have no idea why you keep handy.”

“Thank you Feris.” The other two said.

“Mum always said that smells matter the most for your sanity! So I keep them handy just in case!”

“Wow... you have a mum? I’d have thought she’d left you at a kennel for wild dogs.”

*Pfft*

Maya and Amy giggled at Sin’s remark, but Feris wasn’t so happy.

“Fuck you, cunt.”

Sin stuck her tongue out with a smug face, teasing him further.

Feris simply flipped her off.

“Alright, let’s carry on guys. No need to piss each other off anymore, as funny as it was.” Maya said.

“Tell that to the queen bitch over there.”

Sin felt like she could’ve made another joke about Feris’s mum using his own words, but at that point it would’ve definitely gone too far, so she didn’t. In fact, after remembering more about Feris, she felt bad joking about his mum to begin with. She was just like her dad, having to raise him alone.

“Alright... I’m sorry Feris.”

“Don’t care. I’m going to the next building.” He said, in a way that made Sin think he probably did care just a little.

As they left the little building they were in, Sin looked over across the middle of the House. She wondered how Rai’s group was getting on.

“mmhi. Im shoodhiwiwo.”

The fuck is that?... I can’t make sense of it.

“Oes! Thiiwoofoo!”

Rai couldn’t see anything. His ears were muffled as well, which made it very difficult to hear the voice nearby.

He’d just woken up. At first he felt extremely dizzy, as if he’d just gotten headrush right after getting up too quickly. But after a few minutes, Rai’s senses began to come back to him. The feeling of the blindfold, and the thick rope tying his hands and legs to the chair he was plopped on, were very much present now.

After a few more minutes, Rai’s senses became clearer and less obscured.

Whispers flowed through the air, willing themselves to their recipients.

“Oh yes. How thoughtful of a plan ye’ve granted us, dear departed.”

Ethereal giggles, if they could even be called that, filled the air. The whispers seemed happy, in a morbid way.

The other important thing Rai quickly realised was that the voice was not one he’d heard come from a mortal. It carried a wispiness just as strong as its raspy nature. Grating against his ears, while also soothing them at the same time. Rai figured that this was the lich.

For his own benefit, however, Rai continued to pretend he was unconscious.

“Dear departed, may ye choose betwixt these offerings! My little dolls should love to host ye and yer souls!”

Somehow it has an accent. Can liches have accents?

Rai mentally slapped his cheeks.

Focus up Rai! This is the lich here... right here... how can I fight it...

Gather information first.

Wait until the last moment...

Then strike.

Rai patiently waited. He had to figure out what the lich’s plan was before he acted on his own. Though, the last thing the lich said was probably the plan. Him and his friends were fodder for the souls of the dead in some way. Either they’d consume their bodies, or use them to re-enter the world of the living.

“Mmm. Might this be the most potent concoction yet? I would hope so!” The lich echoed.

It’s making potions or something. I can hear the bubbling and glass clinking now.

“Ooo how divine! Dear departed, ye tickle me.”

A cold, necrotic, wind blew past Rai.

Then a low, malicious, growl came from right in front of him.

“This one looks ravishing!”

It’s talking about me.

Shit.

Cold bones rattled beside Rai’s ear.

Then the brittle being stroked Rai’s cheek.

“Just like mine oldest lover. Ye’ve picked well, dear departed!”

The smell of death from the lich’s breath was so strong that it bypassed Lina’s spell.

Rai forced himself not to react, or he’d give himself away.

“Simply drink the concoction, little doll! Then the dearest departed may return to my side!”

Slowly, the bony hand of the lich moved down to Rai’s lips.

He heard the swishing sounds of the potion rocking back and forth in the lich’s hand.

Wait... is it shaking?

Now’s my chance!

Rai used Hellfire to burn through the ropes.

“What be that smell?” The lich said. It stopped in its tracks. “... Burning?”

Stormflow!

*BOOM!*

An instant.

Rai used 50%.

Within the second, Rai managed to accomplish 3 things.

First, he moved away from the lich’s grasp.

Second, he took in the layout of the lich’s lair. The room was more like a vast cave, with a number of decaying bodies laid out on stone tables on one side, and alchemical workbenches on the other. It seemed like the lich had made an outcropping stemming from the bottom layers of the mausoleum.

Third, Rai zoomed his friends out of the lair and into the mausoleum itself.

Within the next half second, Rai drew Ghost and imbued it with Hellfire.

He struck at the lich.

But his blade met thin air.

Behind me.

Rai dashed to his side, dodging the gloopy purple acid that shot past where he once stood.

The chair he was sat on quickly became mush.

Antithesis.

Rai stared at the lich, holding Antithesis against it.

He struck once more.

The lich flew away quickly.

Its speed was just as fast as Rai was at this level of Stormflow.

*Tch!*

That first second was thanks to the element of surprise then. I’ll have to play this smart.

He’d learned from his previous fights, and didn’t give the lich time to breathe.

Rai kept the onslaught going, firing Hellfire arcs wherever the lich flew or teleported to.

None of them hit.

But antithesis stopped the lich from using any offensive spells.

They’d almost instantly fallen into a stalemate, just as the battle begun.