Erebus was no newbie to this area, this was home, and ghosts and goblins were something Erebus knew more about than most people. He had been robbing people's pockets on these streets for twenty one years, and counting! It seems that fate had brought him back and the first thing Ko wanted was to pick up another dangerous job, so off on another S-rank quest they go. Equipping Phantom Dancer, pun intended, no ghost was going to fuck with this rogue. Matter of fact, Erebus didn't fear the dead, he felt at peace beside them. After all, the Lich who terrorized these parts on Halloween met a grissly defeat to him, and the souls of the Underworld thanked Erebus for freeing them of the manipulator's control.

You can't fear spirits, if naturally they draw themselves to you, so why even stress it? However, one such spirit, as there always was a few exceptions, was a dark and illicit monster. A mongrel of the church, a scorn on the backs of the town. Erebus approached the Church, noticing Ko standing outside the black gate. The church had an eerie vibe at night, kind of like a haunting on hill house or something. The graveyards in Oak were further west, but the entrance to the holy catacombs were beneath this sanctuary. The catacombs were from past wars in Fiore between Demons, Seraphim, Humans, and Elves. Humans were primarily the specters down there, but every now and then you'd come across a sealed demonic spirit-- or so the folk tales say.

Erebus wouldn't let it distract his idea of a good time, and rather loved slaying monsters, so regardless. He was seen strutting up with a parted smile, somewhat happy to be back into a job less... Royally dangerous. If anything, Erebus feared a life in some dungeon to ghost whispering in holy burial grounds. He was just different in that way. Ko was dressed his usual way, his companion yet again absent, Nancy was beginning to cross Erebus as quite the coward of a wyrm; but he wouldn't make that comment out loud. It was a safe guarded thought for himself, first and foremost. For even if she was, Ko had a glimmer of bravery not common in other mortals. Erebus was drawn to that light, which perhaps was hidden in darkness on purpose.

He raised his hand to wave at his partner, unaware he was a good ten minutes late. Erebus was normally early, but having been home, there was just a few people he needed to catch up with. "Ready to play Ghost Hunter in the catacombs?" He asked simply grinning. "Let's go?" Erebus hopped around the mage with a stride to his step, seeming to glide even without trying. Rogues had a skill for nimble and quick spins and rotations. Almost as if they truly were dancers. The Unavoidable One would go up a small flight of five stairs, and push his body weight against a door, letting himself into the chapel. Underneath an alter at the epicenter of the room, there was a chamber door. It was detailed in papers itself, though there was a few other entrances, this was the one Erebus had been peaked off to investigate. So he approached in with a flair of interest.

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With Ko taking a leadership role and opening the chamber door, Erebus rested his hands in his cloak pockets, just as curious as he was only moments before. Seeing what lied down there was a knowledge he wished to expose himself too, but without showing much of it, there was an anxious thought about going beneath a magical ghost town. Spirited away to the Underworld. It was like... An eager journey he wished to make, a world he wished to see.

"Of course I do." Answered the green-haired speedster to his wyrm-rider friend. He graced the pocket in his cloak and removed his trademark zippo lighter with the teal and chrome trim. Extending it to his ally's hand, Ko would be ahead and could light a torch for their use, and Erebus would cover the back in case he needed to phase with the shadow's and pick a ghoul apart. He then offered a word of dialogue to his mage friend, the Darkness Dragon Slayer. "I forgot to ask you, but about your magic, it being esoteric energy compared to my knife's metal edge; well, it'll probably have you taking a bigger role than me in our offense. I'll support you from the back if that's straight by you,"

The rogue then added a message of warning. "If you hear voices, victims, you know people who you might remember from another point in your life. Best if you ignore them."

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To most of Ko's answers, Erebus didn't need to add further dialogue. He was sure Ko would be okay for the most part, Erebus wasn't much afraid of the dark, but he was arguably at a disadvantage to spirits. Even more, he didn't truly have an idea of what kind they'd come across. Ko seemed rather forward and just yelled into the endless abyss, meanwhile, the rogue was sure they needed to force their necks a little deeper, after all the engravings on the wall were in his native latin and he read them there for Ko to understand, perhaps just a little, that their descent was going to be much longer than just five minutes.

"Portae ex Inferis." Erebus gave note, as his warm fingers slid against the cold stone, the hauntingly real images of screaming skulls, and the idea that angry invisible entities were probably there hadn't occurred yet. The deeper they descended, the more shocking and horrific the venture would grow. "As above so below, Ko. We won't find anything conscious until we go at last as far as we would to find people above ground. Let's press further." The air was colder down here, and within the small light they had illuminating from the torch, fogged breath could be seen escaping the Rogue's lungs. Signifying that with every step, the light would be ever so much more distant.

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The comment about keeping the dead down, almost made Erebus cock a grin. He'd heard stories of the undead, entities known as Zombies. Being humans who strayed too far into entrances to the Underworld like this, they would accidentally find themselves in a world with demons, an Abyss you could call it, with the only chance of really surviving through means of combat. Or creating a pact with a Demon Lord, even then though, eventually every person in the Underworld loses their soul, such was law in King Yama's domain.

"Yeah, it's very possible these bodies were crammed here without proper funeral, buried one atop the other. It would explain why the images are kinda cruel, these bodies were shoved into the walls together, heaps and heaps of ancient people." Erebus elaborated. He then perked up ready to speak, only to be cut off by a light up ahead. A tiny child, a toddler sat there beneath a stick with a tiny flame. She looked to be playing with a toy, the sound a jewelry box could be heard, an old tune, like the kind your grandmother would play from hers.

The child wouldn't look up, her blonde hair shielded her face, however, due to where they were. It clicked to Erebus "Well, now's your chance to yell at them again Ko." He muttered, keeping his voice silent as Ko would hold the lead. Obviously, and quite quickly put together, this was a bad situation, and this spirit was going to force them to approach it because it's attention was on it's toy.

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Erebus watched his partner respond... Bravely. The man walked up, and ripped the music box from the banshee child, it's black eyes empty tunnels that were it's own form of catacombs. The winds that picked up, caused Erebus to be pushed forward, which he reacted too by rolling from his shoulders back to his feet in one solid movement. Though a single blink later, a pale corpse with mutilation on it's form festered itself into reality, with no head or arms, it resembled a dullahan. An old spirit said to be the dark counterpart to a Celtic pixie. With it's form popped into existence, the sudden arrival of the corpse monster shocked Erebus to fall backwards on his back. Maggots quickly filled in between the meat zippers at it's holes, which showed a graphic look into the anatomy of a recently slaughtered body. Straight from Silent Hill this monster's stomach slit open, and blood ran like water. Another ghost, the form of a crying mother could be seen. Swimming out of the blood pouring. It swiped forward at Erebus with it's knife. To which he responded by parrying Phantom Dancer off the attack.

Whatever was going on over with Ko, Erebus was only half conscious for, as his own monster was very active in attempting to murder him now itself. Due to purely having not expected it at all, his reaction time was delayed and a bony arm, practically sticking to the bone with flesh pulled him from his place at the ground, by his neck's backside. Ramming his head against the stone wall. More arms seemed to phase through the wall, trying to pin Erebus too it, as the headless corpse fell backward for the psychotic she-demon to crawl out the other 'dying' entity and approach him.

All the while, the music box would begin to play it's song backwards, and the child's limbs would crack and bend, whilst it turned into an eerie beast. More like a hellish monster than a toddler after only a few seconds. With sharpened stub-like appendages, it attempted stabbing it's stubs into Ko's thighs. Where it could drink various organs and liquefy Ko's guts for ingestion, starting and coming out through the holes it wants to make, and using the appendages as suction tubes.

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A mother, a mutilated father, and a child. Could be anything, from a Yakuza situation, to a case of a cheating husband. But this was certainly a family, just one out of the infinite ghost instances you could expect. Erebus normally wasn't one to worry on a mission however, being bound to the wall, he had no chance but to allow the crying psychotic ghost to stab his chest. He spewed blood from his mouth as she kept stabbing different areas of his chest.

Had he not worn his cloak he might have died, but thankfully it cushioned some blows. Erebus saw his vision getting harder to keep focused, he could feel the wall pulling him into an ectoplasmic entrance, and he could almost feel the spiritual pressure of the infinite dead in the undergrounds as his soul fought to remain in his mortal coil. Now that he recalled it, this was the closest instance to actual death he'd faced in his life. Sure enough, the living couldn't him. The dead would have too, a fitting end for the Underworld's Prince...

Only...


Erebus wasn't a quitter. He awoke like a madman, slicing the spirit's neck, a spewing fountain of red hemoglobin showered him underneath. With red paint over his body, and gaping wounds to boot, Erebus called over to Ko. Unsure about how to help him fight that thing, regardless. He made it known, he had no plans to die just yet. "Me? Die? You wish pal." He joked, pointing his dagger at the beast, if push came to shove, Erebus would help Ko fight it. If Ko could handle it, Erebus knew he could if he wanted, then Erebus would merely cough blood a little, slowing his own breathing so that he didn't suffocate himself in blood.

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Erebus stayed upright but occasionally had to lean back and fight for his consciousness, watching as his vision broke into three Kos', and a few banshee monsters, his sights were failing him. Due to the loss of blood in his body the walk back was going to be a massive bitch of a task, and yet Erebus could only love it, being so close to death was comforting and perhaps this why a restful sleep was so admired by the suicidal. It was real, a perfect quiet... Until you turn into these things, snapping out of the warm darkness, Erebus watched Ko drop a dragon's maw atop that thing, then a crushing mire. What the Rogue could understand to be a pretty decent spell from the looks of it. Ko relished on what to do with the other ghost, Erebus responded simply. "Allow me."

Erebus drited his attention to the soul squirming and crying in the corner, Erebus hated to see a mother cry. They were guardians, and she had failed to guard her child from the men before her, but in her defense. She was dead, and they made the choice to remain here... As beasts of darkness. He had no mercy in the fiber of his being for a monster that would rip and murder people, especially these two guys who had merely came here to talk to them, apart. He simply kept it short and bittersweet. "You'll see your baby in hell, where you're going, it's even worse than these catacombs." Without really knowing the background on the murder of this family, the whole ordeal told Erebus enough. The mother was the cause for the child not crossing, and the father well... He wasn't in sight. So that meant the damage belonged to the mom.

The reason her family was suffering, was just the vivid image of her suffering, for not getting to see her daughter grow up. For not living out to old age. Erebus approached the crying ghost without humanity in his eyes, real and latent fear on her face could be seen. Erebus was a being that while alive, truly commanded the dead... He would demand his enemies die, and that metaphor was without just figure behind speech. This was no difference, dead or not, the dead die for Erebus. He shoved his foot forward so fast and hard the skull of the ghost exploded into the blood behind his superhuman strength. Erebus was use to making the hard decisions in life. Even if he wasn't the evilest guy in this dark guild, he was a merciless and, quite ruthless opponent. To find yourself on the opposite end of his rage, would be to know certain death.

Laying there with her, was a diamond ring, as her corpse caught on fire. Erebus shot his hand through and snipped it from her. The pain hurt, but he imagined this relic would fetch a penny on the black market. Erebus would leave, stolen ghost ring in hand. He turned to Ko, and nodded for them to head back up. One ghost fight was enough down here, these things were gravely dangerous.

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