As Nastasya spoke, Odin noticed that she was actually right. The walls, the stone flooring, it was surprisingly clean and without dust. Whether it was Santos himself, or perhaps priests that he sent down here, one thing was clear. Santos used this place for more than just the storing of the recently deceased. While it was true that Odin hadn't really spoken to the Bishop much, only have completed a few tasks for him in terms of silencing the usurpers, he had gotten a measure of the man. He didn't do anything out of goodwill: everything was a plot to further his own advances, and consolidate his power in Dahlia. Which meant one thing to Odin, and probably to his partner too. If this place was kept clean, it was not to keep the dead happy and well rested. Only the Bishop and the priests came down here usually, so why had Santos let Odin and Nastasya, two known creatures of darkness and evil-doers, enter the catacombs. What had been his play for allowing the two people, potentially two of the only people that could incriminate him in his shady dealings, to enter a dark chasm that he had left clean. The faint smell of blood and death answered Odin's questions, as he motioned to Nastasya to follow him.
Odin would wander for some time, following the scent of death that Nastasya too no doubt could detect. It was overpowering, but it was different from normal. A normal dead person gave off a rotting smell, showing signs of decomposition and decay, perhaps maybe some indication of how they had died, but usually no more than that. A person killed by a vampire was left with nothing but flesh and bone, all blood sucked out of them, and that gave off the simply smell of blood. Pure, metallic blood. This was none of those things. If anything, this smell was closer to one who was perhaps killed by an animal. A human killed by a bear or wolf usually gave off a mixture of the two smells, with clear extras thrown in the mix. The smell of blood was always prominent, but it was joined by faeces, the smell of innards, more than just simply blood. It was much more disgusting to behold without a doubt, and it was the smell that Odin and potentially Nastasya were currently making their way towards the origin of.
As they walked, Odin noticed the walls change slightly. They were darker, not clean and covered in more blood and gore than the previous walls. Not only was this a new extension to the otherwise standard catacombs, but a great many people had died here, in various different, but horrific ways, and each had been torn apart. Santos had made a point of keeping the area around the catacomb's entrance clean and free from any dirt, but here he either didn't care, or was too scared to clean. As they reached the true origin, everything clicked into place and everything made sense.
Santos occasionally allowed people to enter the catacombs, or perhaps he threw his enemies down. Either way, they would make their way though the darkness, following whatever their senses could pick on, that being this smell. Not recognising the smell, they would simply follow it, and by the time they realised what they were smelling, or why the walls were getting wetter, it would be far too late. This wasn't a catacomb, it was an execution chamber which was why, as Odin turned to enter the chamber itself, he locked eyes with a feral werewolf, one that looked permanently trapped in its wolf form as it gnawed on the bones of whoever the last unfortunate had been to wind up down here. Holding the torch in one hand, it being the only thing to let him properly see beyond a small cylinder of light that came down from a grate linked to the surface, only one sentence escaped Odin's lips as he prepared to fight the beast, trusting that his partner and her companion would not be far behind, and would be able to keep up and aid him in this fight.
"I'm going to kill that damned Bishop one day, and it is not going to be quick."
2462