MINE YOUR BUSINESS (DEATHBORNE)

OUTSIDE THE GREAT MINES, OUTSKIRTS OF NEXERIA

“A bloody mess! I can’t believe you got us into another bloody mess!” Vamyn says, staring at the giant swarm of grotesque ghouls storming out of The Great Mine. They surround his comrades Lord Itellier, Lady Lyligan, along with himself. Extending his claws, he lacerates the face of a charging ghoul.

“You can’t believe it? Really?! This is almost the 100th time he’s done this!” Lyligan smashes her heel into the gut of the ghoul in front of her.

“You wound me, Lylie. I don’t mean to cause trouble; it just happens. Besides, I am only trying to help expand the Deathborne brand. I mean, we can’t be famous just sitting around doing nothing.” Itellier whacks the back of his hand into one of the ghouls’ faces, sending them flying away.

“Forget famous! We’re infamous enough as it stands! And I already have enough issues with bringing the vampyre plague upon the world, among other messes.” Vamyn notices more waves of ghouls coming at the three of them. He charges forward, slashing through more of the relentless ghouls.

“Not that again, Vamyn! No one blames you for the vampyre plague! Just because you brought it about ages ago doesn’t mean anyone knows you did! Leave your baggage in the past! The long, long-ago past!” She spreads her demonic wings, soaring into the sky. Her body radiates purple with spiritus energy. Like a bolt of lightning, she dive-bombs into the giant pile of ghouls. The collision causes a minor explosion, wiping out a chunk of their foes. She stands up gracefully, outspreading her wings to fling the ghoul blood from them.

“Exactly! Vamyn, my lovely sister, is always right. Think of the bright side; when the Deathborne become famous heroes, it can help you become an inspiring figurehead instead of a sulking mess.” Itellier unsheathes his scythe before charging at the giant pile of ghouls ahead of him. He slices through a small group of them with relative ease.

“Can’t you people let me gripe about my emotional damage while I kill things in peace?!” Following the siblings, Vamyn slices through the ghouls, easily painting the ground with their blood.

“Moving along from my curse, these things seem endless. We need to stop wherever they’re coming from!”

“That sounds like a smashing idea! We just need to get through this giant horde!” Itellier says, slashing through more of the ghouls.

“You two fly over them and get to the mine. I’ll hold the horde off till you get back!” Vamyn shouts, cutting through more of the ghouls, his sharp nails piercing through their flesh; making blood flood out upon the area.

“Don’t do anything stupid! Some of us care about you and your sulky ass!” Lyligan flies back into the air, heading towards the entrance of the mine.

“See! This will be good for you! Get more of that aggression out and keep your spirits up!” Itellier spreads his own wings, flying into the air after his sister.

“Just stay safe! I’m not worried about myself!” Vamyn sees his friends make it to the entrance of the mine safe.

Heh heh, I love those fools. He thinks, then stares at the horde of ghouls.

“Sulking is what I’m good at, but ripping ghouls to pieces is what I’m great at.” Raising his claws at the ghouls surrounding him; his eyes light up a bright red while bearing his fangs, entering his bloodfeast mode: a mode where it feels like time slows down for him; his reflexes grow faster, and his strength increases. He moves like a pirouetting chainsaw through the surrounding ghouls; limbs, blood, teeth, hair, eyes, and more are all flying off in every direction possible. His claws cut indiscriminately through every substance they touch of the mindless ghouls around him.

INSIDE THE GREAT MINE, OUTSKIRTS OF NEXERIA

“Why are there so many ghouls coming from this mine? Telly, what mischief did you cause now?” Lyligan stares at him with a look of curiosity mixed with annoyance.

“Look, I know I cause mischief now and then, but this is not my mess. I may have been looking for something near the Ghoul Portal, but I did not touch the Ghoul Portal. Now, enough chit-chat! We’re wasting time and have to find the portal quick-quick before it’s too late.” Itellier sprints down the mine corridor.

Lyligan follows her brother, bewilderment written across her face, unsure how to process the information she was just told. “Wait a minute! What portal! You never mentioned a portal before! If we have a time limit here, you should have mentioned that! That’s clearly important! You always do this, Telly; always leaving out key information!”

“Bah! I had no time to explain the whole situation! We need to stop the Ghoul Lord from entering this world. Otherwise, these ghouls will overrun us!” Itellier heads deeper into the mine.

“Skruk! There’s a Ghoul Lord too?! Only you can cause this much chaos in pursuit of saving the world!” Lyligan continues to chase after her brother with her eye slightly twitching from his further explanations.

“Thank you. I appreciate your understanding of my personal brand of justice.” Itellier stops suddenly as he enters the giant cave within the mine.

Lyligan enters behind him, both of them in surprise at the size of the giant, glowing portal in the room. Giant ghoulish hands start rising out of the portal; the hands try to widen the portal. She smacks her brother on the back of his head.

“Your brand of justice is gonna get us killed before it gets us famous. And I have a story to finish writing!” She unsheathes her spiritus imbued sickles from her sides.

“Ouch, that really did wound me this time.” He rubs his head after the whack.

“But what can I say? Chaos makes life exciting! You wouldn’t have such glorious memories without me.” He pulls out his scythe.

“Besides, I have plenty of pieces to paint myself. So, don’t worry; we got this.” Itellier charges ahead, swinging his scythe. He pierces through both of the Ghoul Lord’s palms. Ghoul blood bursts out from the wound, raining down in the mine.

Screams are heard loudly from the portal that echo throughout mine. Lyligan dashes forward, slashing through the Ghoul Lord’s wrists like it was a piece of cake. Echoes of even louder screams travel throughout the mine. What’s left of it pulls back into the portal, still dripping blood.

“I would have a lot less near-death experiences, too. How do we close the damn portal?!” Lyligan says, covering herself from the raining blood.

“Why would I know something like that?! I figured we’d just block it with its giant corpse.” Itellier covers himself from the spurting blood coming out of the Ghoul’s wrists.

“Aargh! Fine, just a slight setback. Like you said, we got this.” She slices her palm carefully; her purple blood rises out of the wound. She uses the blood dripping down her hand to make a spiritus symbol on the ground.

“Addo Ciido Maagus!” The spiritus words make the blood symbol on the ground glow brightly with energy. Arising from the ground, the symbol forms the shape of a spirit. Opening its mouth, the blood spirit sucks in all the portal’s energy, rendering it inert. The spirit dissipates after its job is complete.

“Phew... I hate using blood spiritus, but it’s what was called for. Sorry for getting frustrated with you, Telly, but you were right about one thing: we did have ‘this.’” She says, turning around and noticing Itellier isn’t in the room anymore.

“Argh! I knew he was hiding something from us again!”

Itellier rushes down another tunnel. Stopping at an intersection in the mines; he takes out his treasure map and a small piece of twisted metal that’s glowing faintly.

“The chest I came for should be right...around...” He holds the trinket out towards the left pathway; it glows brighter. The pathway leads to a dimly lit room with what looks like the chest he’s been looking for.

“Here!” He says, speeding down the pathway, checking his surroundings to see if any traps are around. He opens the chest, which emits a bright light towards the trinket in his hand.

“Zooks! Finally, I can change everything. This was worth all the false pretenses and bringing my family against an endless horde of ghouls!”

The mine starts viciously shaking all around him. Stalactites fall towards the ground; the ground cracks open; and the ceiling of the mine crumbles.

“Ah great, they’re gonna blame this on me. This has to be from the portal, not stealing the sacred treasure, right? Right? Itellier, get it together; you’re talking to yourself, and you have to get Lylie and get out of here.” He hurries back; in the hallway he can see Lyligan with a fire in her eyes.

“What did you do this time?!” she asks, gripping her fists tightly.

Itellier runs past her, grabbing her arm and running away from the mine collapsing behind him.

“No time to explain! We have to save my beautiful behind and yours too, but it’s not as beautiful as mine!”

“Hey, my behind is beautiful too! I’ve heard no complaints! And when we’re done saving them, I expect answers!” She says, running next to him, pulling her arm back from him.

OUTSIDE THE GREAT MINES, OUTSKIRTS OF NEXERIA

Vamyn slashes through more of the ghouls, cutting through them with his claws one by one, blood spurting all over him. Finally breaking a sweat after killing ghoul after ghoul, his energy nowhere close to wavering, his eyes glowing a brighter red.

“It seems like their numbers are dropping. The two of them must have actually done it. Shocking; I was afraid I’d have to get in there.” He notices Itellier and Lyligan running out of the mine in a hurry; the mine explodes behind them.

“Ah, now that’s more what I expected. This is just going to make us more infamous...” He cleaves another ghoul’s head clean off its body while shaking his head in disappointment.

“Now explain yourself! How did that happen?! Where did you go?!” Lyligan screams at the top of her lungs towards her brother.

“I did nothing! Maybe the mine was being held together by the portal. Maybe this is all your fault? Hmm?” He says, staring intently at his sister, clearly full of lies.

“Don’t pin this on me! That portal closed just fine after I left. When I find out what chaos you caused, I’m going to return it tenfold!” She says, wanting to smack him upside the head with a cactus.

“WILL YOU TWO STOP BICKERING AND FOCUS! They have stopped coming, but there are still a ton of them left to kill. Take out your aggression on them!” Vamyn says, his eyes glowing red, claws dripping with ghoul blood. More ghouls fall to his claws, each one meeting the same fate.

“Fine!” Both of them in unison sigh and charge into the battle with Vamyn.

Itellier swings his scythe across a horde of ghouls, lopping off their heads as blood shoots into the sky from their necks.

Lyligan slices through a bunch of the ghouls, taking them out in their heads, sides, legs, and any opening she finds.

The Deathborne dwindle the numbers of the vile ghouls till they are no more. The three of them, covered in blood, stare up into the smoky sky from the towering inferno of what used to be the mine behind them.

“Next time, Itellier, inform us of what we’re in for. No more blind jobs! This is just going to make our name worse! I am tired of being villainized! Being blamed for things I didn’t mean to do. I only want to help people, and it keeps going wrong.” Vamyn turns his back on his friends, kicking at a rock in frustration as he walks away.

“Great, you made him even more of a sulking mess! We were hoping this would cheer him up! But no! You always have some ulterior motive, and now he’s worse than ever!” Lyligan storms off from Itellier, trying to catch up with Vamyn.

Itellier shrugs his shoulders and sighs, looking down at the ground. He loses himself in thought; this was the right way to go for the Deathborne and himself. He found something that will help change the world, but that’s not important currently. What is, is trying to make this up to his friends.

“Don’t worry, guys! I’ll be better next time! And I’ll make sure this won’t hurt our reputation! Believe me! This will all work out in the end!”