By the time the caravan reached the Asylum of Blood, they were no longer talking to one another. Neither could come to terms with the nature of the other, and they were both bitter.
Sebastian for being judged by someone who had blood on their hands, both as the result of combat and accidentally. And Edwin because he felt guilty, the reality that he had brought upon such a calamity on the people of Duria, the Surian Theocracy and Harika knew to whom else, was dawning on him.
The chief caravanner, Callahan, agreed to stay and wait for them for three days. Anymore, and they would be written off as dead. Abandoned in the cold desert for the snakes that dwelled within the dungeon.
The only good thing Edwin had heard about the dungeon was that it had medicinal herbs growing inside its core room. He planned to get samples to gift to the nearest town, so they wouldn’t be lost. The rest he was going to pull down, brick by brick.
The two shadows attempted to enter, and then Edwin saw the first hurdle in his plans. The earth around the dungeon was holy and so, the shadows couldn’t go inside and search for the dungeon core.
“Who would bless a dungeon? It is a murder hole?” Silence answered Edwin. He scoffed at Sebastian, too proud to make an excuse for the thoughtless comment he had made.
And, for once, Edwin didn’t feel like being the peacekeeper. He had enough of that with Daniel. And how did that end up? With the warrior nearly mana poisoned.
“Come on, we have wasted enough time staring at the entrance,” Edwin moved towards the arch that depicted the Asylum of Blood’s entrance. It had flower motives on it and silver linings where the blossoms were. The dungeon core had an eye for beauty.
They entered the first cavern and saw that it was flooded and overgrown. Like a swamp. There were swamp lilies around the edges of the water, and something glimmered in the middle of the make shift swamp.
Edwin made to go to it, when Sebastian placed a hand on his shoulder and roughly shoved him back. Then, he waddled in the water and pulled a thick, long chain, from the swamp’s bottom.
“There is a pentagram bellow,” these were the first words that Sebastian had uttered to Edwin in two days. They almost startled the healer. “What do I do?”
“Pour necromantic energy through the chain. If there is something below the pentagram, it will die,” or get mad. But that was an eventuality for which Edwin didn’t want to think. But, it seems, that it had crossed Sebastian’s mind.
“I’m going to pull the chain instead. With any luck, whatever is below is still asleep,” with a huff of extortion, Sebastian began tugging at the chain, ever going backwards. Edwin knew that the vampire was physically stronger than him, but he was amazed at the fact that he managed to remove a slab of stone by himself. One overgrown with moss, by the looks of it.
The water began to drain through the now open hole.
“There are stairs below,” Sebastian said as he let go of the chain. “They look slimy.”
Edwin looked around the room and saw a door. When he destroyed the dungeons in Duria, there was this one that hid its core on the first floor in a side chamber. He had to double track to find it. Could the Asylum of Blood be the same?
“We have to first check up the door over there,” Edwin pointed at the rusted monstrosity of a door with snake motives in the left corner of the cavern. “Although, something tells me we have to be ready for a fight.”
“If even you are being cautious…” Sebastian pulled out two daggers from his boots and headed over to the door, with Edwin close behind. Meanwhile, Edwin had pulled his dagger.
Sebastian rapped on the rusted door and something slammed on it from the other side.
“This is a bad idea,” the red head touched the door knob and turned it regardless. On the other side was a giant, three-headed, snake that was coiled on the floor. Upon seeing them in the doorway, it moved two of its heads to strike at them.
“We have to lure it in the other cavern. We will have more room to run around it. Aim for the eyes and the head in general,” yelled Sebastian over the angry hisses of the snake.
They both stepped into the swamp cavern, now devout of water, but the snake didn’t follow. It was coiled around something, and it refused to leave it. Instead, it hissed angrily at them and spat venom in their direction.
Edwin focused necromantic mana in his dagger out of habit, but then it sizzled out.
“Seriously? You knew it was a holy place,” chastised Sebastian. Edwin bowed his head in shame.
“What can we do?” The healer needed to know what the snake was guarding. And when it would run out of venom. So far, its venom sacks seemed to be inexhaustible.
“We? You step back and sit tight while I freeze the scaly thing,” the surrounding air crackled with mana and this time, the snake moved. It lunged at Sebastian, who stared it down as it approached. Then, an icicle appeared in its mouth, and it began to trash wildly.
“How do you like me now?” Mocked Sebastian. Edwin shook his head. For all that Sebastian was ancient, he was immature. Time to finish this. Edwin made sure his mana was as close to being a healer’s as he could manage, and then he ran to the snake. Touching it on the rightmost head, he cut the connection between the blood supply and the brain on that head.
It fell down, limp, and the two other snakes trashed for a while until they, too, fell down.
“I had it covered,” snapped Sebastian. “And I told you to stay back.”
“You were torturing an animal. I euthanized it.” Edwin said a quick prayer to Harika for the snake and then went searching for whatever it was guarding.
