The once great city could be spotted a good distance away thanks to his trusty spy glass. As if the gods were already enough trouble on their own; now the world had to worry about their crazed, undead followers causing all sorts of mischief. Mordecai rolled his eyes as he observed the dead pacing back and forth. “Poor bastards” Taking a swig of water from his canteen, he got up off of the sand and dusted himself off. Armed to the teeth with all sorts of blades, he knew that it wouldn’t be enough to put an end to this stupidity but that wouldn’t stop him one bit.

Wasting little time, he trekked off the sandy hill he was perched on and slipped on his oni mask. The devil hunter had some business to conduct in these parts and when he reached Aysut. The place screamed ancient craphole to him and it didn’t take long for the party to start when he spotted a flock of the undead rushing towards him. Bringing out his crimson scythe, he waited and mentally counted the seconds before the vile things were within reach and took a clean swipe at them. Some of them were cut in half from the torso and fell onto the ground. The others were still coming after him, unfazed by the attack. The horde was starting to grow quickly as the attack attracted more of them.

“Damn”, Mordecai muttered as he took out a couple more of them before taking off. He needed to get further into the city and avoid these walking plagues. He fled with them on his tail, trying to grab and pull him into them. From there, only gods knew what the hell they would do to him but he wasn’t planning on finding out. As he looked back, he could see those that he had cut down were still after him, crawling about the earth on their arms and hands along with their brethren. Still, he was able to keep up his pace and lost them for a little bit, taking refuge in one of the nearby buildings towards the center. Hiding inside, his back was against the wall and listened to the moans and growls as they passed by and continued further until nothing was heard. Mordecai sighed as he calmed himself and cautiously peeked out the door before sprinting out to reach the Pyramid. It had to be where the source of this mishap was coming from.

He slowed down at the entrance and held a sour look as he noticed the statues. “God, why can’t I be free of him?” He wasn’t expecting to see his father immortalized, or in this case, immortalized in disgrace here. To be frank, he hadn’t wanted to see any trace of any deity, let alone him.  

The grim atmosphere was broken by a peal of laughter and the shock waves from an explosion. Then more things were being blown up, and bits of mummified corpses were raining everywhere. "Ahahaha! Die mummies! Try and get me, suckers!" What looked like a small girl wearing a white smock over black trousers zigzagged through the air as she rained down fireballs on the horde of undead following after her. Having this winged armor was the best purchase she had ever made since that triple chocolate bonbon from Komiteia. It was about time she visited Aysut. After all there were relics to be swiped–er, 'reclaimed' for research! …And personal use. Opening a portal made arriving a breeze, but it was still risky with all the undead shambling around. Thankfully they could be easily handled just like how she solved her other problems–with explosions.

Singing loudly, clearly this mage had no intention of going about stealthily, cutting a path through the use of arcane force. And she was having a good time too. With the pyramid entrance in her sights, she zoomed towards it. Looking back, she sent a volley of arcane arrows into the growing mob trailing behind. "Eat this ya gutless goons!" Turning her attention back to the front, she let out a yell as she ducked just in time. Dipping down she almost ran straight into the top of the entrance and descended to a smooth landing. "Whew! Almost had an accident there. So that's why they say to keep your eyes in front when flying." Holding a hand to her ear she listened for any shuffling or groans. Satisfied with the silence, she cast a protection spell and began gleefully skipping her way through the first chamber. Time was a-wasting; there were artifacts to loot!

Necromancy was his least favorite magic to fight against, because it was a stubborn, annoying magic that lazy practitioners used to have their undead servants to do their dirty work. And from how fast these corpses were regenerating, whoever was pulling the strings was a powerful necromancer. Mordecai wasn’t too thrilled with the realization, but there were things inside the pyramid that had to be dealt with/ He couldn’t really care why this place was resurfaced nor why in the devil was there a statue of the White Kitsune out for display. Let the old man see it and take whatever action he wised, it wasn’t the hunter’s issue.

What was going to be his problem had came in the form of explosions being heard behind him. “What the…” More of the damned citizens were chasing after what he made out to be a woman flying ahead of them, and was the reason for the fire and explosions. This place attracted the weirdest bunch of people, but at least she wasn’t fighting for the city. Her spells were cutting down their numbers but as long as they were in the city, it looked like they would recover and keep up the chase soon enough. “The slow husks out here are the least of the problems. Whatever is pulling the strings in there might make them look like a litter of kittens”, Mordecai called out. Perhaps that wouldn’t be her concern, seeing that her statement made it obvious that she was looking to raid this joint for any of worth. He knew of the camp nearby, filling with more adventurers and took only a moment to groan loudly.

“Just what I need, more distractions. Well you lot better not need any help. I’m going after the top guy around here. You want some treasure, then be prepared for whatever this damn place has in store.” Holding his scythe low, he started into the pyramid. He could sense bad vibrations coming from deep within it, something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. There was something woefully wrong here, and certainly wasn’t of the natural order. Still, he pushed himself through the path ahead only to realize that it was branching off in various directions. “Great, because they can never make this easy, right?”

She heard something that sounded like a person yelling towards her, but the words were drowned out as she set the mummies ablaze in her aerial assault. Myouga didn't really notice that the undead didn't–well 'stay' dead, even after she blew them to kingdom come. The outer area of Aysut had been scavenged by the other adventurers and researchers already, so if she wanted something she had to go deeper. Pulling out her magic mirror, she changed its size to a mirror fit for a wash stand. Setting it on the ground, she levitated a set of hound-headed jars and sent them through the mirror's surface. The other mirror in the set was in her office back in Iria, where she would sort through the clutter later. "These will be a great centerpiece for a table! Hmm…now which of my coworkers are dog-lovers?" She didn't even bother to check the insides of the containers, but if she had, she would've realized they weren't just fancy jars.

Having pilfered a few novelty storage units, she set her sights on the hieroglyphs on the walls. She didn't have the translated notes the archaeologists back at base camp had written up, so she didn't know all the words at a first glance. Rubbing her chin, she looked for the perfect section to start chipping. The Mage's Academy would love having something like this on display. They could even open an exhibit and charge admission to collect funds to expand their curriculum! Alternatively she could put the same things into a museum. These weren't going to collectors this time; they were too special for that. 

Inspecting the carvings on the walls, she tried to see if there was a way to separate the part she wanted from the wall itself. An idea went off in her head, and she reached into her bag. "…No. Nope. Not this one. Not that one either. Oh I still have one more bonbon! I'll eat that later." After emptying her bag's contents, she frowned. "Fiddlesticks. I don't have a chisel." Did she ever own a chisel? Probably not, as she couldn't remember. "Now how am I gonna get this mural off the wall? It's not like I can bash it off with a stick." Disappointed, she began cycling through her options. "Should I blow up the wall? No…that probably would just reduce it to smithereens. I want them in bigger pieces, for readability. Fireball? Nope. Lightning? No that's dumb. Ice? I don't have any strawberries and honey."

While she was lost in deliberation, one of the statues in the chamber turned its head, and raised its stone weapon high. The shadow it cast made it darker for the mage all of a sudden. "…Hey who turned off the lights?" Looking at her feet she realized her mistake and the grinding of stone moving made her eyes widen with fear. "Uh-oh." She saw the shadow of an arm with a weapon raised, and dove to the side as a giant stone sword smashed into the mural she was standing in front of. Scooting back her eyes followed up to see a dog-headed statue coming off of its base to attack her. It was massive–standing at least fifty feet high. The eyes glowed a crimson red, and the head turned when it found she wasn't beneath its weapon. "Y-you've gotta be kidding me! That's not fair! Why do you get to keep your sword intact after hitting a rock wall? It's not even metal!"

Wait. The wall broke? Her eyes darted at the mural and large pieces of it laid on the ground where she had been standing. A mischievous glint entered her eyes as she began grinning from ear to ear. "Hehehe~ Looks like I'll be able to take those carvings with me after all."