Once underground, I took a look at the passages. They stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions. And as I studied the surroundings, I saw more graves were in the walls. The passages were basically underground catacombs. Astor explained, the space above ground was reserved for warriors and those who could afford the plots. For those who were less fortunate financially, their loved ones were buried underground. Also, people who wished to bury their loved ones next to their other deceased family, but could not afford more plots on the surface, were able to reserve the underground spaces directly below their mausoleum, so family and friends could easily walk down the stairs in the mausoleum and pay their respects to everyone in one visit, without having to find an underground entrance on the perimeter, or one that is sparsely located throughout Vampire Hollow.

As we walked along, I asked him where the tunnels would lead us, and he said it would take us straight to the edge of the graveyard. It was music to my ears. Thus, we grabbed a couple of torches, and continued on.

I began reading names of the deceased off the graves, and to my surprise, Astor knew at least one fact about almost all the families, and for most of them he knew much. He told me that no worthwhile ruler did not know the houses in his kingdom, and he believed the better he knew them all, the better ruler he would become. From the most distinguished names to the most common, Astor knew something about them. He always spoke with the same reverence for all the houses, too. He did not praise the wealthy over the poor, or favor the warrior families over the working class. No, he was equally respectful of all. I told Astor that he could teach the leaders of Earth many things on how to conduct themselves. That was when he made a statement I will never forget. He told me that from his studies of humans and humanity, one thing he realized is, humans place more trust in themselves and cling to autonomy when they are their own greatest threat. Vampires, on the other hand, place their trust in something greater than themselves, and cling to the knowledge that doing their part, no matter what it is, benefits everyone.

His words made me think for quite some time, because he was right. On Earth, we are all about our freedoms. Yet, time and time again throughout history we have proven we are our own worst enemies when we act freely. We have destroyed our planet beyond repair, we have committed acts of war and genocide against one another, and we have grown to be more selfish and consuming by the day. Yet, when we come together to work towards a greater good as a species, we achieve marvelous things. Take Platinum City, for instance. When the US was ripped in two, everyone came together from across the globe to help mend the wound. It did not matter what race, gender, religion, creed, or sexual orientation you were, or what type of human you were – normal or hyper-being, – everyone banded together to fix the damage. The result was the greatest city the world has ever seen. It had so much potential, too. But now, it is just as segregated and polluted as anywhere else. That is another topic for another time, though.

As I contemplated these things, Astor disrupted the silence by stopping me abruptly. When I snapped out of my pensive daze, I noticed the passage led us to a massive area of destruction. The graves along the pathway had been destroyed. It looked as if they were dug out, and the entire area was set on fire. I inquired what could have happened there, or why anyone would burn the graves. Astor’s response was, maybe robbers looted the graves, and burned them to cover their tracks. However, so many were destroyed. We must have drudged past at least a couple of hundred demolished grave sites. Then, Astor stopped and picked up something. It was a large piece of cloth.

I asked him what that was, and he said it was a piece of a ceremonial wrap. Astor explained that it was custom for vampires to wrap their deceased in cloths. In the very old days, ravenous monsters would sniff out buried vampire bodies, and dig them up to eat them. Therefore, vampires began wrapping the corpses up in cloths, because they believed it helped mask the scent. That was also when vampires began burying their dead in small structures for the same reason. Over time, the custom of wrapping the dead carried on, and the small structures turned into mausoleums.

The information Astor told me was morbid, but the history lesson was not what caused him to have a worried expression on his face. Thus, I asked what about the cloth bothered him. Astor answered the cloth he was holding was not burnt, which meant it fell in the area after everything was set on fire. When I inquired why that was odd, he said because it meant a corpse had been out of its grave, and when he combined that fact with the entire area having been burnt as if there was a plague outbreak, only one thing came to his mind: anubi creatures.

After dealing with the lazaruss creatures in the graveyard, I wanted nothing to do with what he was talking about. He told me I had to keep my eyes peeled, though, for anubi creatures were just as deadly. Therefore, we proceeded with caution.

I asked Astor what exactly anubi creatures were, and he explained to me that they are vampire corpses that have become riddled with a microbacteria which feeds off the rotting flesh, tissue and bones. When someone comes near them, the microbacteria has the ability to animate the corpse to defend itself, and keep the host body from being destroyed. And since it is tradition to wrap vampire bodies before burial, I realized anubi creatures probably looked like ancient Egyptian mummies. Then, a few minutes later I received visual confirmation, for a large group of them were piled around, blocking the path, and it did not take long for them to notice us.

Astor unsheathed his sword, and told me to get my bone staff ready. I immediately asked him how to kill them, to which he replied the only way to completely end their life is to burn them. The fire kills all the microbacteria. Unfortunately for us, we did not have nearly enough fire to stop them in their tracks. So, we had no choice but to fight them.

In the confined space of the underground passages, it was difficult to maneuver. However, Astor and I were able to move about. He chopped down anubi, while I smashed them into the ground. They were relentless, though, and they were also much faster than the lazaruss. The microbacteria was intelligent, too, for it enabled the corpses to use basic animalistic attacks, like clubbing and scratching. They were strong as well, as I could feel the pressure of their grasps through my monster hide cloak. In addition, the anubi loved to swarm, as their hive mentality made them great at overwhelming their enemies. They acted like white blood cells attacking a disease. This caused problems for me, because I had to constantly push them off me to gain distance in order to strike them down. Astor, however, was faring much better.

His sword was a more effective weapon to have. Once he cut off the legs of the anubi, they were basically useless. Astor also used his shadow to strike down many of the anubi. And if he was caught in a tight spot, he would just turn into mist and move to safety, before rematerializing and attacking again. I’m telling you, that is the greatest power anyone can have!

After about ten minutes of an ugly fight, we emerged victorious and put down all the anubi. Not wanting to take any chances, though, we used the torches to burn the small piles of them we made, and continued on down a side path, away from the underground passages. We then noticed there was another pathway. Curious, we followed it, and what was at the end of it was a surprise. We were standing in the bottom level of the famed Rathegalia mausoleum…

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