The strange conversation ended leading nowhere. Rhiannon only half-believed the self-proclaimed guide. She had poked him with questions, like:

Where you've come from? Where is this place? Why did this bonfire change into a safe zone? What are these ashes the skeletons leave? How can they be used? Does time go normally here? How exactly should she return to Earth?

Normal, obvious questions, Rhi had asked all of them yet received no useful answers. The raven would point at the 'choice' and ignore her. So Rhiannon had chosen to follow her pre-established plans. She climbed the stairs.

In the shrine, she looked around cautiously. There was a triangle shield on her hand and another on her back, strapped to it tightly with white shreds from her pants. It was both to have a backup and armor where her eyes couldn't see. Rhia kept the humble mace as her main weapon.

The woman glanced towards the south, where at least two skeletons were standing behind the wall, and resolutely (but quietly) walked away.

Exiting the shrine, there was the mound with her coffin right before Rhia (to the north, according to her mind map) and a few naked trees with more coffins under. Further away there was a big area populated with pedestals and statues of all religions she could and couldn't remember.

Looking back, on the right from the shrine there was a monument with pictograms on it.

I died there. She had run by the monument her first time and got killed the moment she climbed over a fence.

That was it. There were more half-destroyed buildings in her sight, but nothing looked important enough.

Rhiannon sighed and walked up the mound. The forest of deities looked at her disapprovingly and she waved at them with her mace.

"Yeah, I am bothering you again. Sorry if those guys are your followers, alright?" on an off-chance, she apologized before diving into one of the passages between Buddhas.

With a light gait, Rhia strode through the labyrinth, and it was a labyrinth: there was no obvious order to the web of roads. On Earth, she wouldn't have shied away from riding one of the statues for a better view, but in this place? They seemed to watch her every move and, on second thought, she didn't know who else would watch her from afar. Or above.

Soon the woman noticed a dark patch of cloth, a part of a familiar cloak.

There are more skeletons here... I knew I had it lucky.

Rhiannon noticed a spear and, after a short hesitation, retreated, turning her steps into another part of the labyrinth. Noticing another skeleton, she immediately crouched away. Bit by bit she was mapping the labyrinth in her mind, using a few familiar or strange gods as road posts.

...

Okay, that's it.

A wall blocked her. It was around ten meters tall and made of large stone blocks with no gaps, fissures, or anything an untrained person could use to climb over it.

Rhiannon didn't get surprised. After all, it was the west wall, and she had already stumbled across the east wall a while ago. It meant she now knew how wide the graveyard was: four to five hundred meters. She had also mapped out ten to fifty meters into the labyrinth in-between those walls, which largely depended on the skeleton distribution.

The woman was quite proud of this achievement she'd spend a few hours on and not a single death.

Now I need to clear it. In moderation, Rhi, in moderation.

The western side became the start of her glory.

A skeleton reacted when Rhia entered his radius purposely before its eyes (non-existent). As usual, it advanced immediately and stabbed her with a short sword.

Clack! Rhiannon deflected the strike with her shield. The bone bastard swung its sword upside-down, the woman blocked it head-on, feeling the power of it with her own bones.

The following barrage of attacks Rhi still took on her shield. After five or six strikes, she finally attacked: the mace lashed out when the woman managed to deflect the sword aside, nearly reached its ribcage... then she stopped it and backed away, as it was just a probing swing.

Having missed the meeting with death-death, the undead continued its attacks, sometimes parrying weak strikes from Rhiannon.

This battle was pretty amateurish. Two foes were simply standing before each other and swiping around cold weapons. Sometimes Rhia would make a step back and the skeleton would take a step forward.

Finally, she broke its arm and then skull with two accurate blows. The whole ordeal ended up quite anti-climatic.

This is the pattern. The skeleton attacks from certain angles at a certain speed. It's like a training dummy!

Nevertheless, Rhiannon was quite pleased with her progress. She tapped her shield lovingly: the majority of this transformation from prey to huntress she rightfully attributed to this Lion on the greed-yellow field. The painting roared victoriously from the front of the shield, or so it seemed. 

"I do attack from certain angles at a certain speed too. It looks like a few days... maybe a week of training?"

Her hand caught the ashes as Rhia was contemplating their effects. A speck of warmth soon formed in her chest.

"Next."

...

Crash! Rhiannon skillfully repelled a sword strike and calmly battered a skull with the mace head. Then she heavily rested her shoulder on the eastern wall of the graveyard. The sixth dot of light settled inside.

It was the sixth and the last sword wielder Rhia had spotted and separated from its brother-in-arms. For now, she was purposely ignoring spear-wielding skeletons. They had reach she wasn't feeling comfortable to contest without using tricks; instead, Rhia was shamelessly refining the gifts of ashes on easy targets.

And, various deities her witnesses, the shield was giving her a truly unfair advantage! Rhiannon loved it for she could save the fire seeds for later use.

"Should I probe a spear guy or call it a day? Or maybe..." the woman stared in the depths of the labyrinth.

She wavered on it. Triumphal and simple battles revived her confidence and with it curiosity.

"I won't die..."

Rhiannon nodded to herself and traversed along the wall, gazing at pedestals and looking for goods amongst the ancient offerings.

A yellow gleam caught her attention. Under a statue of a half-man half-lizard half-unknown, there was a large chalice filled with dirty coins.

"Gold?" Rhiannon walked over. "Gold!"

Struck dumb by a fortune casually appearing on a side trail, the woman grabbed a coin and rubbed it on her sleeve. The relief showed a profile of a half-lizard half-man with an unknown symbol on the other side, quite possibly a number. I am rich! But getting it over to Earth will be harder than smuggling it over the Chinese border...

The earth shook, interrupting her amused thought. Shivers ran down Rhia's spine and she spun in place. The gold coin jingled and rolled on the ground from one road slab to another until it ended up squashed by a stone foot.

A rock statue descended from its pedestal. Rhiannon popped eyes at a naked athlete with ripping muscles towering from ten meters away.

Golem!

The proper name came to her on its own. The golem with crude face turned to her and flexed its joints. Step after step sent tremors into her legs and Rhiannon gulped. From walking to running, the distance between them shrank!

Her pupils dilapidating in panic, Rhia raised her shield and swung her mace down. Close to a ton of mass slammed into her, sending the woman flying. Her pilot carrier came to an abrupt stop when she rammed into another statue, thankfully unmoving, and slid down powerlessly.

"Fuck!" she screamed through waves of agony in her totally broken arm, the damaged shield uselessly swaying. "Fuck, fuck!"

The seeds of fire burned in her chest as the golem rapidly crossed over. It lifted its leg and stomped on her beautifully.

Crash!

A road slab splashed with shards and dust like water with waves. Rhiannon, having managed to roll from under it, felt this slam with all her body. Using a moment the golem was stuck in the ground, she jumped on her feet in one smooth motion.

It wasn't something the woman was capable of doing just a moment ago. However, it didn't save her. A stone fist pummeled her right shoulder into pieces and smashed her into a pedestal. She felt her head hitting solid.

In suffering and dizziness, Rhia fell. She spent the last moments of this life with unpleasure watching and feeling her jaw and teeth being pounded back into her brain.