A Dance With The Dead

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 8, Post Number 195

-Silent Cemetery, Midnight-

Having driven to the outskirts of Silent Cemetery on her DH-40 Centaur after having picked up her old friend Abigail Windstrider from Oak Town, Victoria slowed down and parked the vehicle about ten meters from the cemetery gate. Once the vehicle had safely stopped she put it in park and turned off the ignition. Victoria climbed off first followed by Abigail.

Victoria was wearing a gray hoodie with her new blue Steel Matron t-shirt underneath it and black skirt with black bike shorts underneath the skirt plus her olive green iLac in her backpack. She also carried her Silver Dagger on her left hip in case she needed a backup weapon. Victoria probably should have put on long pants before coming out here, but now it was too late. A cold wind blew and both mages shivered; however, Abigail was worse off than Victoria.

Abigail wore a blue Earthland Eagle crop top with the logo printed in white and blue jean shorts with brown boots and the Sky Blade scabbard secured to her left side. She shivered in the cold and looked more than a little miserable. Victoria kind of wished that she had brought a spare hoodie with her so that she could loan it to Abigail, but she had forgotten to bring a spare. She had also forgotten to wear her Azure Armor... again. In fact Victoria had forgotten most of her usual gear except her backpack, iLac, and Urban Nights Glowstick.

"So, Abby, what are we here for?" Victoria asked her partner. The blonde shivered in the cold and rubbed her hands against her arms until she got warm enough to respond.

"We're here to investigate reports of a cult trying to raise the dead with a drum. It's not just any drum. According to Father Morris, it's a special drum made with the skin of a really powerful necromancer with the power to raise the dead when it's played." Abigail replied before another cold wind blew through the immediate area and caused her to shiver. Victoria blinked. A drum made with the skin of a powerful necromancer?

"Are we dealing with Zupazu's Executioners again?" Victoria asked Abigail without really thinking about the question. Abigail turned to the brunette and blinked. Victoria took a deep breath.

"Zupazu's Executioners are a demon cult I've fought a few times before, Abby. I'm not sure if they've come here to raise the dead in an effort to boost their dwindling numbers with zombies." Victoria explained the reference. Abigail visibly perked up.

"Oh, so that explains what that Father Morris guy was talking about when he brought them up." Abigail replied. Victoria blinked again.

"So Father Morris told you about them, huh?" Victoria asked Abigail. The blonde nodded.

"Yeah, Vic. He told me about them and how they're working to bring a demon lord onto the physical plane. He also told me about how you and the clerics have been kicking them around Earthland." Abigail replied. Victoria smiled a little.

"You could say that. The last time I was here they had a hideout in Silent Cemetery, but me and a few clerics wrecked their hideout. That was months ago, though." Victoria remarked and explained how her last fight with them was several months ago.

"Father Morris isn't sure if it's Zupazu's Executioners or a completely different cult, but he wants us to investigate what's going on and shut it down. He also wants the drum if we can manage to get our hands on it, but if it's too dangerous to try and secure, he wants us to destroy it to make sure that no one else can use it." Abigail gave Victoria a few more details before stating their objective. They were to investigate Silent Cemetery, find the cult, and stop them. They were also to take the drum and bring it to the Order of Lightbringers. However, if it was too dangerous to try and obtain, Victoria and Abigail were to destroy it on the spot to keep it out of another cult's hands.

"OK, sounds simple enough. Can we expect any kind of support from the Order?" Victoria asked. Abigail shook her head.

"I'm afraid not, Vic. Father Morris wouldn't tell me what's going on, but he told that the Order's involved in something important and that they couldn't spare anyone to help us. We're basically on our own." Abigail grimly replied. Victoria frowned deeply.

"Oh Hell. That's not good." Victoria remarked when she heard that they were basically on their own. She did not like the sound of the Order being involved in something so important that they had assigned all of their clerics to the task. She doubted that they were hosting a charity fundraiser in Capital Crocus.

"Yeah. We've can't count on the cavalry arriving if we get in a jam, so we've gotta be really careful." Abigail remarked. Victoria sighed.

"It is what it is." Victoria replied calmly. She did not like that they were being sent into a site of possible cult activity without any kind of support from the Order, but there was no choice. They would have to do this mission without backup of any sort.

"With that being said, are you ready for this, Vic?" Abigail asked Victoria. The brunette wordlessly brought out her Light Machine Gun, gripped it in her right hand, and nodded.

"Now I'm ready." Victoria replied. She then took the lead and began guiding them towards the cemetery gate.

[Post Word Count: 917]
[Total Word Count: 917/11,000]

-Inside Silent Cemetery-

Abigail shut the gate behind them and met Victoria, who was standing watch over the path that led into the cemetery with her Light Machine Gun. Victoria had been looking down the path, which was lit by moonlight in a cloudless sky. She did not know if that cult needed a night like this to perform their ritual or if some cosmic entity was throwing Victoria and Abigail a bone, but the Sabertooth mage was not going to complain. Abigail walked to her right side and stopped.

"Hey Vic, have you seen any zombies or zombie dogs yet?" Abigail asked Victoria. The brunette turned to face her partner and shook her head.

"I haven't seen any yet, Abby. Normally you can't walk in here without seeing a few waiting for you, but tonight there's not a single one. Not in this area, anyway." Victoria replied. Abigail frowned. It was good that they did not have to fight for their lives the moment they set foot in the cemetery, but that was also somewhat troubling.

What if Victoria and Abigail were too late to stop the cult?

What if the cult had already completed its ritual and had left the cemetery with its new army of zombies in tow?

It was too early to give up, but the brunette could not help but to be worried that maybe this time she was too late. There were no zombies anywhere in sight and there was no moaning in the distance whatsoever. The only sounds she could hear were the wind picking up and the occasional rustling of grass. Abigail looked at Victoria.

"We'd better get going, Vic. We might be able to stop them and get that drum." Abigail said to her partner. Victoria nodded.

"Yeah. Let's get going." Victoria replied. Together they began to walk down the path towards the branch that led left or right. The graves around them were all closed, so this area's inhabitants had not been awakened yet. After a minute or two of brisk walking they arrived at the branching path and looked around them.

"So, which way do we go?" Victoria asked Abigail. The blonde shrugged.

"I don't know which way we should go, Vic. We need to look for clues, like open graves or open burial vaults." Abigail answered before suggesting that they search for clues. The wind blew fiercely and Abigail shivered.

"Hey Abby, do you need to borrow my hoodie?" Victoria asked, offering to loan her partner her gray hoodie so that the blonde did not succumb to hypothermia before they made contact with either the cult or its zombie army. Abigail shook her head.

"No thanks, Vic. I'll be fine. I also don't want the zombies to have anything to grab onto because I have to get in melee range to fight them." Abigail refused the offer and explained why. Victoria saw that there was a certain logic to the refusal. The hood of the hoodie hung out and would be easy to grab if the brunette got into melee range, so it would be in her best interest to not get in melee range to begin with. When Victoria thought about it Abigail's refusal made sense. Most of Abigail's sword techniques required getting close to the target to use them and she did not want any baggy clothing that could be grabbed to hold her in place or drag her down.

"Fair enough, Abby." Victoria replied calmly. She looked left and used her enhanced vision to see that the burial vaults were lying open. She pointed towards them with her left hand and called Abigail's attention to that.

"Hey, do you see those open burial vaults?" Victoria asked Abigail. The blonde nodded.

"Yeah. Do you think the cult went that way?" Abigail asked the brunette.

"Maybe, but it could be a red herring. They could want us to think they went left when they actually went right." Victoria suggested. Abigail crossed her arms over her chest.

"Maybe, but I don't know if we have time to check out both paths." Abigail made her own suggestion. Victoria frowned.

"So, what do you want to do? Go left or go right?" Victoria put the decision in Abigail's hands. The blonde remained silent for a few moments before pointing left.

"I say we go left, Vic. I'm thinking they went that way." Abigail replied. Victoria nodded.

"OK, Abby. If you think they went left, we'll go left." Victoria replied. She hoped that they had not chosen the wrong path, but if they did they could quickly change course and go right. Besides, it was not like just pounding on a drum made from the skin of a necromancer could magically raise the dead and make them perfectly obedient to the drummer right away. There was likely a certain rhythm that needed to be played for control to be established over the newly raised zombie army.

At least Victoria hoped that using the drum was that complex.

If using the drum to raise an undead army was as simple as tapping any old beat on it in the middle of a cemetery, the world was in deep trouble.

"OK, I'll take the lead." Victoria said to Abigail and led the pair left towards the open burial vaults.

-On the left path-

Victoria walked in front of Abigail with her Light Machine Gun at the ready in case the open vaults were not empty. So far they had remained silent, but she still did not trust anywhere in Silent Cemetery to be truly safe. The wind blew hard and rustled the grass around them, making the only real noise in the area other than their footsteps.

"Hey Vic, are you seeing any zombies yet?" Abigail asked the brunette.

"No, not yet." Victoria replied laconically. She did not like how quiet things were. Normally this place was swarming with zombies, but so far they had encountered nothing but silence.

Suddenly they heard a faint drum sound in the distance. It sounded once and was not very deep, but it had the characteristic sound of a drum skin being hit with a hand.

"Hey Vic, did you hear that?" Abigail asked Victoria.

"Yeah. It sounded like a drum." Victoria answered. The drum sound was heard again.

"I think we're on the right path!" Abigail said. Victoria nodded.

"Yeah, but we need to be careful to not just charge in. Remember that we don't have any support from the Order that we can call in if things get dicey." Victoria reminded Abigail that it was just the two of them against a cemetery full of zombies and cultists. Abigail gasped... she seemed shocked that the brunette was counseling a cautious approach.

"Vic, I can't believe what you're saying! You're actually suggesting that we don't run in with guns blazing like action movie protagonists!" Abigail said half-jokingly.

"When you go up against cultists who can summon demons and see what they can summon, you don't exactly charge headlong into the fray." Victoria said in all seriousness. Months after the encounter with them she was still haunted by the sight of the Maws of Hell and how their open mouths resembled the gate to Hell itself. It was not something that she liked to talk about or even think about.

"Yeah, you're right. We'll just have to be careful." Abigail said in a serious tone. Without any further delay the pair continued their trip into Silent Cemetery.

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[Total Word Count: 2,168/11,000]

-Deeper in Silent Cemetery, twenty minutes later-

Victoria and Abigail pressed deeper into the cemetery past the empty burial vaults and eventually came across a section of cemetery that was gated and liberally festooned with glowing orange lanterns perched on top of tombstones. This area seemed a bit familiar. Once the pair had passed through the gate into the new part of the cemetery Victoria realized that this was the same path they had taken to get to that really creepy necromancer from several months ago. Abigail seemed to remember it too because she spoke up about it.

"Hey Vic, was this the same path that we took to-" Abigail started before Victoria interrupted her with a hand held with the palm out in a "stop" gesture.

"Yeah, Abby. This is the same path that we took to get to that... necromancer." Victoria confirmed. Both mages shuddered and it was not because of the wind making them cold. They remembered the necromancer's horrifying face with the rictus grin, flesh hanging off of it around the upper lip, and how that flesh blew about wildly whenever he flew at them. They also remembered those small green eyes peering out at them from the dark recesses of his skull. They shuddered again and resumed walking through the gated part of the cemetery.

They heard a drum beat again and looked at each other. The noise was still in the distance, but it was a bit louder than it was when they were passing by the burial vaults. Presumably they were on the right track, so they kept going. They passed by the gate without it slamming shut this time, making for a good escape route if the battle went worse than they anticipated. They walked by tombstones with lanterns perched on top and noticed that this time the light was warm, but the light they were putting out had changed from orange to blood-red.

"Hey Vic, look at those lanterns! They changed to blood-red!" Abigail pointed out to Victoria. Victoria frowned.

"That's definitely not natural." Victoria stated the obvious. She was not particularly freaked out about it since demon cults liked that sort of imagery, but it was still a little unsettling to see. Victoria and Abigail were about to move on when they heard the sharp sound of a flute playing to accompany the drum and paused.

"Now there's a flute playing?" Abigail asked Victoria. They listened to the flute sound again and the drum began to beat a little faster.

"Seems that way. I wonder if it's a flute made from the thighbone of the necromancer." Victoria said the second statement sarcastically. She knew very little about necromancers, but if the drum was made out of skin from one, then she suspected that any instruments used in a ritual to raise the dead were also made from body parts of the same necromancer. Or she could be totally wrong... that was not unprecedented.

"Maybe. Now let's get going, Vic. That cult's not gonna stop itself." Abigail commented.

"OK." Victoria said before the pair got going again. They resumed walking towards the source of the music while keeping an eye out for zombies or zombie dogs that might have been raised to serve as sentries. They passed through the gated part of the cemetery without incident and soon came across another path lined with empty burial vaults.

"Great. More empty burial vaults. I don't think their occupants went on a vacation to Crescent Island." Victoria remarked sarcastically. Abigail frowned.

"Yeah. They might have gone to the Silent Cemetery Jamboree going on deeper in this place." Abigail indulged in a bit of sarcasm herself. Victoria laughed at that before they kept walking. It seemed like Victoria was influencing Abigail more than she had realized.

-Deeper in Silent Cemetery, fifteen minutes later-

The pair had passed by the empty burial vaults without incident but they could hear the instruments a lot more clearly as they passed into a section of cemetery with sealed burial vaults on both sides of a well-worn path. The pair paused outside them as the drum beat sped up until it was going at the speed of a normal human heartbeat. The flute suddenly played and held a shrill note that sounded like a scream. The vault doors began to groan in response.

"I don't like this. We might wanna get away from the vault doors." Victoria suggested to Abigail. The pair quickly backed away from them and waited for the occupants to come shambling out looking for human flesh to consume. They watched with apprehension as the doors began to shudder open and rotting hands shot out to pull the doors open from the inside. Victoria raised her Light Machine Gun and waited for the occupants to shamble out, which they did after a minute or two of struggling with the heavy door. She fully expected them to home in on her and Abigail, but instead the seven zombies that had emerged from the vault mindlessly shuffled past them to follow the sound of the music.

"What... what just happened? Why did they just walk past us like we were invisible?" Abigail asked Victoria.

"I have no idea, Abby. We were standing right there and they didn't even see us. It's not like we were trying to hide or anything, so they should have seen us." Victoria replied. She was every bit as confounded as her partner. Normally when they encountered zombies the shambling corpses homed in on them like rotting heat-seeking missiles, but tonight they were more interested in the music than they were getting a late-night snack standing only a short distance away.

"Should we kill them now and save ourselves the trouble of fighting them later?" Abigail asked Victoria as she began to slowly draw her Sky Blade. Victoria stuck out her left hand and motioned for her partner to stay where she was.

"Not yet, Abby. I don't want to alert the cult that someone's coming to stop them until we're within striking distance." Victoria replied, surprising Abigail with the nature of her response.

"I can see where you're going with that. You don't want to give them time to run away or summon a really big army, so we're going to follow the zombies to the cult. Once we find the cult we take care of them and the zombies all at once." Abigail filled in the blanks. Victoria nodded because Abigail was right. The Sabertooth mage wanted to dispose of the cult and their zombie army in one big battle instead of having to chase the cult around Earthland like she had to do with Zupazu's Executioners.

"I just hope that we don't run into too many zombies for us to deal with." Abigail remarked on the plan.

"Yeah. Me too." Victoria remarked. She could always use her Grenade Launcher to blast the undead away, but there was always a chance that a smart enemy could kick the grenade back to Victoria before it went off and catch the gunslinger in her own grenade blast. Therefore she did everything she could to avoid relying on it for crowd control, but sometimes being able to blast enemies into tiny pieces with the Grenade Launcher saved her a lot of time and effort.

After that exchange the pair carefully followed the zombies down the path that led deeper into the cemetery as the music grew louder. They were on the right track, but they had to be careful. They did not know how many cultists and zombies would be waiting for them at the end of the road.

[Post Word Count: 1,272]
[Total Word Count: 3,440/11,000]

-Deeper in Silent Cemetery, ten minutes later-

Following the sound of drum and flute deeper into Silent Cemetery, Victoria and Abigail eventually found a large fenced-off area filled with tombstones arranged in orderly rows and mausoleums to the north. On top of the tombstones were lanterns glowing blood-red. The most curious thing was a large gathering of several dozen zombies gathered in front of a mausoleum swaying to and fro in time to the music. They had also arranged themselves in neat ranks and files like soldiers assembled on a parade ground for inspection. Noticing this unusual sight, Victoria hung back and pointed out the sight to Abigail.

"Hey Abby, check that out. A short distance in front of us. Look at all those zombies." Victoria told Abigail in a soft voice. The blonde stopped to Victoria's right and soon spotted what her partner was trying to tell her about.

"I see them, Vic. That's odd. That's really odd. They normally don't bother with formations because they don't even know what formations are anymore. Those cultists with the instruments have got to be why they're doing that." Abigail commented. The drum continued to beat and the flute played a lengthy shrill note that sounded like a scream while the rattle of a tambourine was added, presumably by a third cultist. The zombies continued to sway to and fro in time to the music like rotting metronomes.

"Do you see the people playing the instruments?" Victoria asked Abigail. Victoria used her enhanced vision but could not spot the musicians because there were so many zombies blocking her line of sight on the mausoleum closest to them. Abigail shook her head.

"No. I can't see anyone for all the zombies." Abigail replied. Victoria frowned. The music was coming from close by, but she could not determine where exactly it was coming from.

"Me neither." Victoria commented laconically. The drum started to play a steady beat, the tambourine rattled in time to the drum, and the flute began to play higher notes in a cheerful tune that would not sound out of place in a Renaissance fair before a female voice began to laugh. A fiddle came in and the first three instruments stopped playing, allowing the person playing the fiddle to play a tune without interference. The undead assembled in front of the mausoleum reacted to that change in music and began to... separate?

As a lively fiddle tune began to play the zombies began to separate to give each other adequate space for something. The older, more decayed zombies shuffled off to the sides of the "dance floor" to give space for the younger zombies to dance. The younger zombies spaced themselves out two arm lengths away from each other and once they were all separated they began to sway back and forth in time to the music while the older zombies had broken into two groups. The group on the left began to clap their hands together... well, those who still had hands, anyway. The group on the right began to stop their feet and create a sight that had to be seen to be believed.

"Dude, are you seeing that?!" Victoria asked in disbelief. They were clapping and stomping in perfect time. There was no way that zombies were that graceful. Sure, she had encountered zombies that could run at the speed of living people, but she had never encountered dancing zombies before.

"Yeah, I'm seeing it. Years ago if you had told me that musical instruments could bring the dead back to life and make them dance, I would have called you a liar." Abigail replied in quiet disbelief. The zombies on the dance floor began to pair off and find partners for the next dance while the two groups continued to clap and stomp their feet. Once all the dancers had found their partners they began to perform a dance where the zombies hooked arms together at the elbow and began to walk in circles while doing high steps.

"You called it, Vic. We're watching the Silent Cemetery Jamboree." Abigail remarked to the brunette just before the rattle of the tambourine began to accompany the fiddle again. Victoria frowned when she heard the fiddle.

"I'm not sure whether to laugh or be concerned." Victoria replied while keeping her eyes focused straight ahead.

Oblivious to the living mages standing seventy-five meters in the back, the zombies continued to dance while the two mages watched in awestruck silence. After a few minutes the fiddle and tambourine stopped playing and the drum began to play a military-style marching beat that got the zombies to reassemble in the same neat formation they had had before the impromptu jamboree had started. The two mages watched in silence as the zombies stood at attention.

"What are they doing now?" Abigail asked Victoria.

"Standing at attention." Victoria replied in another moment where she stated the obvious. Abigail let it pass without comment in favor of beginning to sneak closer to the group while using tombstones for cover. Victoria's jaw dropped.

"What in Ishgar are you doing, Abby?" Victoria hissed a question.

"Going to see something. I think I see robed people in front of the zombies!" Abigail whispered back before continuing to sneak forward. Victoria cursed under her breath as she began to follow the blonde mage, if only to avoid being left behind. She dispelled the Light Machine Gun and switched it for her .44 Magnum Revolver, which would be much easier to sneak around with while still being a formidable weapon if she and Abigail needed to fight.

Victoria was about ten meters behind Abigail but was not in any hurry to catch up with the blonde. She moved from tombstone to tombstone, slowly making her way forward and dropping down to try and avoid detection the best she could. Blue was not the best color for sneaking around in a moonlit cemetery full of white granite tombstones and green grass. Despite their choice of attire Victoria and Abigail would make it work. They would have to make it work because they were going into this without any support from the Order of Lightbringers.

If they made a mistake and got in trouble no one would be coming to their rescue. They would have to find their own way out of trouble. That thought propelled them forward despite the dangers of sneaking towards zombies and their necromancer controllers while wearing blue t-shirts.

[Post Word Count: 1,080]
[Total Word Count: 4,520/11,000]

-Silent Cemetery, five minutes later-

Victoria and Abigail had done their best to sneak among the tombstones and get closer to the four instrument-carrying cultists before making their attack. Their attack would only be a surprise once, so they would do well to make it count. If their orders were to destroy the instruments instead of taking them back to Father Morris, the Sabertooth mage would have brought out her Grenade Launcher to maximize the impact of the surprise attack and wipe out all four mages at once. However, Father Morris wanted them to try and take the instruments intact. However, the chance to wipe out the four robed cultists was tempting.

Just one well-placed grenade would take them all out and leave the instruments ripe for the taking.

However, she already had her .44 Magnum Revolver out. While it could not take on crowds of enemies at once like the Grenade Launcher could, each shot packed enough power to take out an enemy in one or two shots. Its Armor-Piercing Rounds were especially powerful... they could punch through magic shields and most forms of armor like they were made out of cloth. Victoria suspected that Armor-Piercing Rounds would be enough to take out the enemy mages without any trouble whatsoever. Now all she had to do was aim at them and take them down, then fight through the zombies to get to the instruments.

Without the musicians controlling them the zombies would be ordinary mindless shambling corpses, but they would be a lot easier to deal with that way. Instead of them being a formidable army responding to the orders of human controllers who could think and make plans, the leaderless zombies would be a mindless mob that could be dealt with at leisure. Victoria and Abigail had dealt with zombie mobs before, so once they did not have any leaders the two mages could easily deal with them.

Victoria quietly moved up to a row of graves less than five meters from the mages and carefully took aim at the head of the drummer, holding her breath and lining up the shot. She waited a few moments before firing and heard the quartet talking. Hearing them talk convinced her to lower the revolver and hold her fire in favor of learning what she could about them.

"Finally, after much time and effort, we've gotten the Four Instruments of Discord. Crafted by the Undying King himself over a century ago out of the body parts of his predecessor. These are truly the instruments of a necromancer." The robed person with the tambourine declared in satisfaction. Victoria had no idea who the "Undying King" was, but considering what little she knew about the drum and the other instruments, she was pretty sure that the person in question was a necromancer. She doubted it was the same necromancer she and Abigail had fought a few months ago because he still had all of his body parts minus some skin around the face.

"Our patron will be most pleased with these gifts." The robed person holding the flute added. The other robed musicians murmured expressions of agreement with the flute player.

"Long have we waited for this day. Our cult has suffered much at the hands of the Order of Lightbringers and their lap dog with long brown hair. We will avenge those defeats." The fiddle player vowed. The brunette did not need a psychic to know that the "lap dog with the long brown hair" was her. She had been hammering Zupazu's Executioners pretty hard and they had come to detest her every bit as much as she detested them. That mutual animosity meant that there could be no compromise. Either Victoria killed them or they killed her... there was no other way to settle this.

"Now that we know that these instruments are real and that they can command the dead, we must take these instruments to our patron." The robed drummer commented. The other three murmured their agreement. Having heard everything that she needed to hear, Victoria slowly raised the revolver again and prepared to fire an Armor-Piercing Round into the head of the drummer. She steadied her aim and held her breath.

Victoria watched them carefully and was about to fire when the four robed cultists turned their heads in the brunette's direction, causing her to lose focus. Had they spotted her?

"I thought I saw something over there!" The drummer informed his fellows. Victoria was not sure what to do. Should she fire and give away her position to the cultists and their obedient undead army or should she hold her fire until they were too close to run?

"As did I!" The flutist seconded. The drummer started to walk towards the tombstones were Victoria and Abigail were when the flutist stuck their arm out to stop the drummer from moving. The two cultists exchanged glances and the drummer soon got the meaning of the gesture. He stepped back and began to sound a marching beat with the drum, sending a section of the zombie army marching towards the tombstones on the left side of the cemetery where Victoria and Abigail were hiding.

Speaking of Abigail... where was she?

Victoria began to look for her partner and saw her a short distance ahead of her hiding behind a tombstone with her Sky Blade drawn. Victoria looked right and saw the zombies heading towards her and Abigail. They were moving slowly, but with their numbers they were certain to find the mages and spoil any chance of a surprise attack. Victoria had to think and think quickly.

Did she bring out her Grenade Launcher and try to get rid of the four cultists in one shot or did she only target one of them with the weapon she already had?

Victoria would need to make a choice in a hurry because the zombies were approaching. Whatever weapon she used she would only have one shot at the cultists before a lengthy chase through the cemetery ensued. She opted to just stick with the revolver and aim for the drummer since he was currently controlling the zombies searching for the two mages. If Victoria took him out they would be able to take out the other cultists before they could re-establish control over the zombies.

At least Victoria hoped that she could pull that feat off.

Once the drummer fell she would not have much time to neutralize the other cultists before they either fled with the remaining instruments or went for the drum and tried to take it with them or use it themselves. Victoria would just have to shoot quickly then. She steadied her aim and aimed for his head just as a gaggle of zombies began to head down the row Victoria was on.

[Post Word Count: 1,138]
[Total Word Count: 5,658/11,000]

With the zombies steadily approaching her and not much time to decide what to do, Victoria made a judgment call.

She would use her revolver and take out the drummer while she had the chance.

Victoria aimed at his head, steadied her aim, and fired an Armor-Piercing Shot that punched through his skull without any trouble. The drummer fell on his back and the drum stopped playing, causing the zombies he was controlling to split. Some of them continued to seek out the mages while others began to walk towards the remaining cultists with their arms raised and their mouths open.

"He's dead and the zombies are out of control! We've got to take back control of those zombies before it's too late!" The fiddle-holding cultist advised the others. The flutist began to play their instrument and the zombies advancing on the cultist began to slow their pace until they came to a stop and swayed in place only a meter from the cultists. The cultist with the fiddle began to play their instrument to get the zombies to dance while the one with the tambourine set down their instrument and reached for the drum. The flutist picked up the tambourine and held both instruments.

Victoria aimed at the new drum player and prepared to fire when she heard moaning only a half-meter away from her and saw zombies heading right for her. Victoria was forced to ignore the cultist in favor of killing the zombies. She turned right and aimed her weapon at its head, squeezing the trigger and firing a single shot that punched a hole in its head and took it down. It crumpled to the ground and the next zombie, a male zombie in a tattered burial suit, advanced on the brunette. Victoria backed away a few steps and fired a shot into its forehead that killed it.

Victoria looked out of the corner of her eye and saw Abigail effortlessly carving her way through the zombies that had found her. The cultists saw the new threat and urged the new drummer to hurry up and start playing the drum so that they could send the zombies after Abigail before she got to them. Victoria was too busy fighting the gaggle of zombies advancing on her, so she could not help Abigail by acting as fire support. The blonde would have to get to the cultists on her own.

Victoria turned back to the zombies and continued to fight them off. She heard the cultists continue to urge their fellow to hurry up and heard a scream as Abigail's Sky Blade decapitated the cultist with the fiddle, causing the zombies to stop dancing and to start advancing on the two remaining cultists again. Victoria continued to fire until she had killed the last of the zombies advancing on her and turned to face Abigail, who was busy trying to get to the former tambourine player who now held the drum.

Victoria watched as the drummer began to play and the zombies stopped reaching for the cultists. Abigail was forced to retreat before she was overwhelmed by zombies and narrowly backpedaled away from a pursuing gaggle of zombies. Victoria began to pick off the zombies chasing the blonde while the two remaining cultists began to make good their escape by fleeing into a deeper part of the cemetery through an open gate just to the north of the mausoleum. Victoria swore under her breath.

"DAMN IT! THEY'VE GOT THE DRUM AND THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!" Abigail shouted to Victoria. Abigail turned her head towards the gate and looked like she wanted to run towards it, then hesitated for a moment. She then turned to Victoria.

"I'M GOING AFTER THEM!" She shouted before starting to run forward and fighting her way to the gate, carving through some zombies while dodging the grasping hands of other zombies until she was safely to the gate, then ran through it. Abigail's departure meant that Victoria was left to face off against almost one hundred zombies by herself.

"Well, so much for teamwork." Victoria muttered to herself as the last traces of the blonde's hair disappeared from sight. There was no way she could kill that many zombies by herself before they were upon her. She could do the job with her Grenade Launcher, but she was worried about what would happen to her if she started destroying tombstones with high explosives. Victoria, not wanting to risk the wrath of some cosmic entity for destroying tombstones and desecrating graves, decided on an alternate approach that did not involve firing high explosives.

She would fall back a good distance and lure the zombies to her, then once they were all clumped together, she would run off to the side and just run around them. Leaving zombies milling about was not the best idea because any zombie she did not kill now could pursue her through the gate and block an escape route if the fight with the cultists turned against the mages, but if she wanted to have a prayer of catching up with Abigail before the blonde got into trouble, that was what she would have to do. She would just have to flee from this fight.

Victoria fell back twenty meters and began her plan to lure them away from the gate and towards her.

"HEY YOU ROTTING IDIOTS! OVER HERE!" Victoria shouted at them while standing on the main path so that they could more easily get to her. The zombies promptly gave up any thoughts of chasing Abigail and began to shamble in Victoria's direction. To encourage them to keep coming after her, Victoria raised her revolver and began to pick off the zombies who had gotten too far ahead of their fellows. Before the cultists had fled Abigail and Victoria had whittled down the zombie army from at least one hundred zombies to a somewhat more manageable eighty-plus zombies, but that was still eighty-plus zombies too many for the Sabertooth mage's liking. Victoria would just have to whittle them down more until she got an opening to sprint around them and for the gate, but she would have to lure them very close to her so that she would have the most time possible to run for the gate.

The brunette would need all the time and distance she could get to outrun the zombie horde before they caught her short of the gate and turned her into a midnight snack. To get that time and distance she would need to thin the horde a bit before making a break for it. Victoria kept picking off the zombies farthest ahead of the pack while waiting for just the right moment to put her plan into action.

Victoria just hoped that Abigail would be all right until she could get to her before it was too late.

[Post Word Count: 1,148]
[Total Word Count: 6,806/11,000]

Victoria, having been left behind by Abigail, was now facing off against eighty-plus zombies while wielding only her .44 Magnum Revolver. While the weapon was more than powerful enough to dispatch a zombie with a single headshot without the use of special rounds, the trouble was that there were just too many of them for the weapon to handle. If she tried to kill them all with the revolver she would only end up as a midnight snack because the hand cannon did not have the rate of fire necessary to make it a crowd control weapon like her Light Machine Gun was.

The brunette looked at the oncoming horde and backed up another two meters to give herself a little more time to think before she committed to running past the zombies to get to the gate Abigail and the cultists had went through minutes ago. She killed a few more stragglers before she decided that it was now or never. But first she needed to boost her running speed.

Setting the revolver down in front of her, channeling magic into her hands, and tapping her feet, Victoria activated her Oscar Mike spell to boost her running speed and give herself the greatest chance of getting past the horde without getting grabbed and chewed up by the hungry corpses. With her feet covered in "boots" of tan magic, she grabbed her revolver, picked off another pair of zombies who had outpaced their fellows, and ran to the left, beginning to run and weave through tombstones.

The zombies began to change course to follow their fast-moving prey, but with her speed boost Victoria effortlessly ran past them long before they could complete the turn to face her. The greatest obstacle she faced was the tombstones in front of her, but she weaved through them without any trouble whatsoever. Having to run for her life in Capital Crocus when she was younger had trained Victoria in the fine art of weaving through obstacles to escape pursuers. Victoria was halfway through the obstacle course when she spotted the fiddle lying unattended by the corpse of the cultist Abigail had killed earlier. The brunette paused and was faced with another decision to make.

She needed to secure it while she had the chance. If she left it lying on the ground there was the possibility that the cultists could evade Abigail and Victoria, loop around the next part of the cemetery, come back through the gate, and scoop up the fiddle, therefore escaping with all four Instruments of Discord. If she took at least one of them the cultists would not have all four and she could slow down their plans, at least for a bit.

However, she had zombies bearing down on her. If Victoria changed her plans now there was a chance that the zombies could catch up with her since she would be back on the main path. The tombstones were slowing down her undead pursuers since zombies did not have the dexterity or brainpower to climb over them, but they could hold up only so many zombies. There were just too many chasing her for the tombstones to slow all of them down.

Victoria hesitated for a moment and cursed under her breath, then sprinted towards the main path. She had to get that fiddle to keep it out of the hands of Zupazu's Executioners. Victoria hurried towards it while ignoring the zombies who started to stagger after her.

With the help of Oscar Mike's speed boost and freely flowing adrenaline Victoria reached the fiddle and scooped it up along with the bow needed to play it. Holding both of them awkwardly in her left hand while clutching her revolver with her right hand, the Sabertooth mage hurried towards the gate and made it through by a comfortable margin.

-Through the gate-

Once Victoria was through the gate she could relax a little, but she could not relax for very long. She pressed her back against the stone wall to the left and leaned against it for a brief break. The zombies were moaning a short distance outside the gate and she could see a few of the faster ones shambling towards the opening. They would not be much of a threat to her because the gate was only wide enough to permit them to pass through in single file.

While she could easily pick them off if she wanted because she was in a passageway wide enough for only two people to walk side-by-side and well-lit by Lacrima lanterns glowing orange, that would be a waste of time she could use to catch up to Abigail. Abigail might be needing Victoria's help, so the brunette needed to get a move on. But before she did, the brunette gave into curiosity and examined the instrument she had just scooped up.

The fiddle was one of the four "Instruments of Discord" and it was presumably bad news. She had seen that it had the power to make the dead dance, but she doubted that making zombies dance like they were at a country jamboree was all it could do. There had to be a reason that all four instruments were found together. She did not know for certain, but she suspected that all four had to be played together in order to use their true power.

Victoria looked at it and saw that it was a plain wooden fiddle, although it had a black finish and the strings looked like they were brand new despite having been in storage for who knew how long. She could also feel a faint but negative energy from it, but she did not have time to examine it further. She heard moaning to her right and saw a small group of seven zombies shambling towards her plus at least twice that on the ground with stab wounds through the head deeper in the passage... Abigail had clearly been through here. Victoria raised the revolver in her right hand and began to take down the zombies barring her path with single shots to the head.

A single shot to the head of each zombie was all that she needed to take them down. Once they were all down Victoria took a breath and glanced to her left. More zombies were massing to try and get through the gate, but they did not have any concept of waiting so that they could go through one at a time. As a result they were jockeying with one another for the chance to pass through the gate, giving Victoria enough leeway to get moving without having to worry about zombies being at her heels. With her all-too-brief break coming to a close, Victoria took off her backpack, put the fiddle and its bow inside, and closed up the backpack before putting it back on. Once she did that she hurried down the passageway past the zombies Abigail had dispatched earlier.

Speaking of the blonde, Victoria hoped that Abigail was doing all right. Abigail was a skilled mage with a powerful weapon and powerful magic, but Zupazu's Executioners were very dangerous. Victoria just hoped that the blonde had not gotten in over her head by chasing the cultists without Victoria being with her.

[Post Word Count: 1,214]
[Total Word Count: 8,020/11,000]

-At the end of the passageway-

Victoria arrived at the end of the passageway to find herself staring out at another expanse of cemetery with no tombstones but several open mausoleums divided between the left and right sides of the area... and a lot of dead zombies littering the ground. Abigail had been through here because all of them had stab wounds through the head or had their heads cut in half. Abigail was also the only one of the pair who wielded a melee weapon as their primary weapon. Speaking of Abigail... where was she?

Victoria looked around the area and did not see her blonde companion anywhere nearby. She also did not see any signs of the instrument-carrying cultists. The revolver-wielding brunette began to walk forward while looking for Abigail and looking for more walking corpses to shoot. She saw neither, but she did see a trail of dead zombies leading towards an open gate flanked by blood-red Lacrima lanterns that was straight ahead and just past the mausoleums. Since it was the only path available to her other than going back to the zombie-infested part of the cemetery she had just left behind, the brunette began to walk forward when she heard the sound of loud moaning a short distance behind her.

Victoria turned towards the source of the sound and learned that the zombies she had attempted to bypass were now streaming down the passageway she had just left behind and were heading right for her. Victoria groaned. She could not leave them there because that gaggle of zombies posed too big a threat to be left behind a second time. Victoria stuffed her revolver in the pocket of her gray hoodie and brought out her Light Machine Gun, aimed for the head of the first zombie, an old man in a brown three-piece suit and a golden monocle over his left eye, then opened fire.

She brought it down with a Five-Round Burst to the head, then turned to the next one, a middle-aged man in a three-piece gray suit and black-rimmed glasses, and used another Five-Round Burst. It too went down, but she was not killing them quickly enough because the zombies behind them continued to advance. She needed to go full-auto and use short, controlled bursts to take them all down before she got grabbed and eaten. Victoria retreated about ten meters, aimed carefully at the head of a zombie wearing an old black top hat with black suit, and let her Light Machine Gun rip on fully automatic fire. It went down and one behind it went down.

She was lucky that the passageway was herding them into tightly packed groups because if the passageway had been any wider they would have been much harder to pick off, not without the Grenade Launcher. As it stood picking them off with the Light Machine Gun would be slow and tedious but doable.

-Twenty minutes later-

The Light Machine Gun in Victoria's hand was glowing red as the last of the seventy-plus or so zombies she had tried to bypass lay on the ground with multiple bullet wounds to the head. She had wasted twenty minutes cleaning them up, but it was a necessary chore. Now that all of them were dead she and Abigail would have a clear path if they needed to retreat from another large zombie army or if they needed to chase the cultists. Victoria took a deep breath and dispelled the Light Machine Gun, then pulled her revolver from her pocket and gripped it in her right hand.

Victoria turned around and walked towards the open gate that lay past the mausoleums. She was pretty sure that she would find Abigail on the other side of that gate. After a minute of brisk walking Victoria passed through the open gate and began walking down a dimly lit passageway just like the one she had left behind minutes ago.

-Inside the second passageway-

Victoria walked down a passageway that had the same dimensions as the one she had left behind, but the lighting was much dimmer. The Lacrima lanterns were spaced much farther apart and as a result there were large patches of passageway that were filled with darkness. Victoria moved carefully and kept her revolver at the ready as she moved down it and tried to find Abigail through her ability to detect magic signatures.

Victoria reached out and was not yet able to find her partner. Abigail must not have been in range of the sensory ability, so the brunette kept going in the hope of reaching a distance where the ability would pick up Abigail. While advancing down the corridor she kept an eye out for trouble and listened out for it as well. She was not sure what was waiting for her on the other side, but she was ready for it.

-On the other side of the passageway, three minutes later-

Victoria emerged on the other side of the passageway to find another large patch of cemetery looming in front of her. Tombstones were all over the place, as were more zombie corpses with stab wounds to the head or heads sliced in half. A large gate loomed roughly fifty meters to the north. She also felt Abigail's magic signature nearby. Victoria walked carefully through the area until she spotted Abigail standing in the middle of the area with her sword out and her other hand concealed in front of her. Had Abigail taken a wound while fighting the zombies or the cultists?

"Hey Abby, are you OK?" Victoria asked the blonde and approached her. Abigail spun around and faced Victoria. In her left hand was the drum.

"No, Vic. They got away with two of the instruments. I managed to take the drum from them, but they got away with the other two instruments, that flute and that tambourine. I couldn't stop them because they had summoned so many zombies to cover their escape that by the time I killed all the zombies I was too late... the cultists had already escaped." Abigail said. Victoria looked at the blonde and saw that the right sleeve of her shirt had been ripped away, presumably by zombies. Abigail also looked more than a little tired.

"I have the fiddle that cultist you decapitated dropped. It's in my backpack and it's not coming out until we get to Father Morris." Victoria said. Abigail smiled a little.

"Good. Having two of the instruments in our possession should slow that cult down quite a bit. It won't completely stop them, but it'll definitely slow them down. While you were busy I learned that that tambourine's not as effective at controlling the dead as the drum, but it can certainly raise them. The same goes for that flute." Abigail told Victoria what the two remaining instruments could do. Victoria frowned. She had hoped to stop the cult's plans here and now, but the two cultists had gotten away with two of the "Instruments of Discord."

At least Abigail and Victoria had secured the drum that Father Morris had sent them to get. That was a big victory for Abigail and Victoria. Getting the fiddle was a definite bonus, one that Father Morris would undoubtedly be glad to receive along with the drum he had sent them to recover or destroy.

[Post Word Count: 1,230]
[Total Word Count: 9,250/11,000]

-Silent Cemetery-

After having to take care of some zombies she had attempted to bypass with the help of her Oscar Mike spell, Victoria had found Abigail standing in the middle of the next section of cemetery with numerous dead zombies lying around her. Abigail had managed to take the drum from one of the cultists, but they had managed to flee with the other two instruments, a tambourine and a flute. They had technically achieved their objective when they had secured the drum, but Victoria was tempted to try and find the cultists and take the last two Instruments of Discord from them. However, whether or not she tried to do that was up to Abigail.

"Well, what do you want to do, Abby? Do you want to try and track the cultists or do you want to call it a night and just take what we have back to Father Morris?" Victoria asked Abigail what she wanted to do. Abigail frowned.

"I'm tempted to stay a bit longer and try to find the cultists in case they just went somewhere to hide instead of having actually left, but I'm going to call it quits while we're ahead. We've already slowed down their plans by taking two out of the four Instruments of Discord. We don't need to risk walking into an ambush and losing what we've got. It took a minor miracle for me to take the drum from them and I don't think I have enough mojo to fight my way out of an ambush." Abigail told Victoria how she felt. Victoria could agree to calling it quits while the going was good. Sometimes it was best to quit while one was ahead instead of getting greedy and losing everything.

"OK, Abby. We'll just call it a night. We'll go back to my Centaur and ride to Holy Castle, then hand Father Morris the instruments and tell him what we've learned." Victoria agreed to Abigail's suggestion for them to call it a night. Abigail had went through a lot just to snag the drum and Victoria did not want to risk running into an ambush and having the two instruments they managed to get stolen from them. They would leave with what they had and be content that they slowed the cult's plans down a bit.

Once their course of action had been decided the pair began to retrace their steps through the cemetery. Victoria led the way and took care of any stray zombies they encountered while Abigail hung onto the drum with both hands. Hopefully Father Morris would be happy with what they had managed to accomplish.

-Outside Silent Cemetery, thirty-five minutes later-

The pair did not encounter much resistance on their way back to the Centaur. Victoria only had to pick off five zombies and they were very far apart. They must have been late to the Silent Cemetery Jamboree. Once Abigail had passed through the cemetery gates Victoria shut the gates behind them and took a deep breath.

"Nice work getting that drum for us, Abby. If you hadn't had taken it from them who knows what they could have done with it." Victoria complimented her partner for doing more than her share of the work. Abigail's bold action of chasing after the cultists instead of waiting for her partner had been very risky, but it resulted in the mission being saved. Victoria had worried about Abigail after having been separated from her partner, but as it turned out, the brunette need not have worried. Abigail had been able to handle herself very well in Victoria's absence.

"Thanks, Vic." Abigail said wearily while they walked towards the waiting Centaur. They walked in silence until they reached the waiting vehicle. Victoria wordlessly began to inspect it in case the cultists had managed to find the vehicle and either sabotage it so that it would not run or set a trap on it that was rigged to activate when it was cranked. Having found nothing to worry about, Victoria flashed a thumbs-up to Abigail.

"No problem, Abby. Now let's get going to Holy Castle and deliver the instruments. Once the instruments have been delivered it'll be up to the Order to keep them safe." Victoria said. She dispelled her revolver, climbed into the driver's seat, and used the ethernano key to crank it up. Abigail carefully climbed onto the back of the vehicle and got seated, then got ready for the Centaur to get moving. Once Abigail was securely seated Victoria slowly accelerated forward and began to turn the vehicle around.

Once it had been turned around Victoria began to head for Holy Castle to deliver the instruments and tell Father Morris of what they had learned tonight.

-Outside Holy Castle, one hour and fifteen minutes later-

Bringing the Centaur to a halt approximately twenty meters from Holy Castle, Victoria turned the vehicle off and both mages climbed off of the resting vehicle. Victoria had had to move at a slower speed than usual since Abigail had her hands full with the drum, but they had still managed to make decent time thanks to the Centaur. Now all they had to do was make the delivery and their job would be completed.

When they were ten meters from the front doors they opened and out walked Father Morris and several Order clerics. They must have been expecting the pair.

"Hello, mages! I see that you managed to recover the drum! Wonderful!" Father Morris greeted them warmly. Abigail held out the drum for the clerics to take and it was soon taken out of her hands.

"But that's not all we've brought for you, Father. We also managed to grab a fiddle. It and the drum are part of a set of four instruments called the Instruments of Discord." Victoria said. She took off her backpack and brought out the fiddle and its bow. Father Morris walked over to her to take possession of the fiddle. Victoria relinquished the black fiddle and he took it into his gloved hands.

"The Instruments of Discord... so that's what they were after." He said more to himself than Victoria and Abigail, but the two mages heard him anyway.

"The people who found the instruments were none other than the demon cult Zupazu's Executioners. They said something about raising the dead to supplement their army." Victoria told him. Father Morris did not seem terribly surprised by that information.

"I figured as much. In between you and us they've been hammered pretty hard. It's no surprise that they're willing to turn to necromancy to stave off defeat. They want to raise the Undying King." Father Morris said to them.

"The Undying King? Is he.. or was he a necromancer?" Abigail asked him. The bespectacled man nodded.

"Yes. He was a necromancer of unrivaled power. It was said that his mastery of necromancy was so strong that he could raise the dead with only a thought." Father Morris answered Abigail's question. Victoria frowned. Summoning demons was not enough for Zupazu's Executioners, so now they were resorting to raising the dead to bolster their numbers.

[Post Word Count: 1,192]
[Total Word Count: 10,442/11,000]

"So the Undying King's a necromancer, huh? Does that mean that the Instruments of Discord have the power to bring him back to life?" Victoria asked Father Morris. The man grimly nodded.

"Yes. If the cultists had managed to escape with all four instruments, they could use them to raise the Undying King and bind him to their service." Father Morris confirmed what the brunette had suspected. Victoria continued to frown as Abigail asked a question.

"Can they raise the guy if they don't have all four instruments?" Abigail asked hopefully. Father Morris shook his head again.

"Thankfully they cannot revive him with only two instruments. Only by playing all four instruments together can they hope to bring him back." Father Morris replied. Abigail gave a small sigh of relief. Victoria began to think a little and wondered about something.

"Father Morris, do the cultists need to play a special tune for the instruments to work?" Victoria asked the man. He nodded.

"Yes. I can't tell you everything, but finding the sheet music to keep it out of the cult's hands is something that's a high priority for the Order." Father Morris confirmed. Victoria frowned and Abigail frowned with her. At least the cultists could not play just any old tune and revive that super-powerful necromancer to work for them. There was that small mercy.

"OK then. What else can we do to help?" Victoria asked Father Morris.

"Right now there's not a whole lot you can do until we find the location of that sheet music. Besides, you two have done enough for today. You've slowed down their plans by getting two of the Instruments of Discord and that's more than we can reasonably ask from just two mages." Father Morris said to them. Upon hearing those words two of the clerics went back into the castle and minutes later came out with two large bags of Jewels, one for each mage. The mages took their payment and listened to the man for any last words of advice.

"Thank you for everything you two have done today. When we find the location of the sheet music we'll let you know. We might need your help again, so please keep your schedules open." Father Morris said to them. The two mages nodded before Father Morris and the clerics turned around and walked back towards the castle with the two instruments in tow. Once they were inside the castle doors closed.

"Well Abby, let's get going back to Capital Crocus... unless you want me to drop you off at your place in Oak Town." Victoria said to the blonde before putting her backpack on again and turning to face the waiting Centaur.

"Nah, that's not necessary. Let's go to your place and crash. I don't feel like riding to Oak Town." Abigail said. Victoria gave a thumbs-up and the pair walked towards the Centaur. Once they both got on Victoria pulled out the key and cranked it up, then began gently accelerating forward. Once they were on the right path they began heading for Capital Crocus. Now that the instruments had been delivered it was up to the Order of Lightbringers to keep them safe from Zupazu's Executioners.

-Capital Crocus, The Sheridan Estate, six hours later-

Having done a lot of driving from the Sheridan Estate to Silent Cemetery, then from Silent Cemetery to Holy Castle, and finally from Holy Castle to the Sheridan Estate, Victoria's backside was starting to hurt a lot. She was glad to finally have a chance to get off of the hovercycle and stay off of it. She had just gotten off when the garage door began to rise and out stepped Laura.

"Welcome back, Miss Sheridan and Miss Windstrider." Laura greeted them. Victoria and Abigail waved at the silver-haired maid before Victoria climbed back onto the Centaur and cranked it again to take it into the garage. Once Laura and Abigail were clear Victoria drove the Centaur into the garage, where she climbed off of the vehicle. Laura soon closed the garage door and Victoria and Abigail could finally relax.

Now they had to wait for the Order to find the sheet music and for Father Morris to send for them again. Victoria and Abigail had slowed down the plans of Zupazu's Executioners by wresting two of the Instruments of Discord from their clutches. Now it was up to the Order to make good use of the time the two mages had bought for them and find that sheet music needed to revive the Undying King before the demon cult did.

[Post Word Count: 766]
[Total Word Count: 11,208/11,000]