August 25th, 2016.

Somewhere in Syria.

Or as they call it these days, Corpse Country.

A 16-year-old girl was riding a camel through a vast desert. The girl had Chinese features, but her neatly cut hair was dyed completely white. Her outfit was what could be described as a slutty modification of the iconic black and green dracomancer uniform. She liked to dress that way to get boys' attention, but when they would flirt with her, she would always turn them down to test their resilience. She liked to think of herself as a heartbreaker, but a more accurate term would be tsundere.

Her name was Shao Taiyang. She was originally from Yinshi, a large city full of magical energy. It was a utopia until Ailis Despres, a French assassin known formerly as the Neo-Godslayer and now as the Death Destroyer and the God-Empress Of Yinshi took over. Of the few citizens who survived, most bent to the will of God-Empress Despres, becoming her cultists. Others continued to fight against her cultists and warriors. Shao was convinced to stop worshiping her Sun God, but only because of all of the people he let die when he actually descended from the heavens upon Yinshi to fight Despres. But instead of becoming a cultist of the Death Destroyer, she ended up becoming a dracomancer, or at least she gave it a try for a little while. She learned the basics of dragon summoning, and she managed to kill several cultists. But, having ADHD, she soon became bored and decided to leave the city. Instead of risking her life, she was determined to live her life to its fullest!

Shao had lost count of the days that had passed since she first left Yinshi. She had been through various modes of transportation before ending up on the back of this camel. But, speaking of the camel, she had been riding it all day. The pounding desert sun was making her tired, and the fact that it was beginning to set didn't help. She made sure she had a secure enough grip on the camel to not fall off before drifting off to sleep.

The next thing she knew, Shao was awoken by something more than even her fast-paced brain could process. First, she noticed that she had fallen onto the sand and ended up with bruises on various areas of her exposed skin. Then, she turned her head and saw the camel lying on its side, dead. The friction of the still-spinning front wheel of a black motorcycle was burning into the camel's stomach, sending its blood and guts flying every which way.

"Thank Source!" A teenage boy's voice said, "And, here I thought the drugs had worn off!"

Shao turned her head in the direction of the voice to see the boy, who was about the same age as her, give or take a year. His hairstyle, which would have been trendy maybe ten years ago, could only be described as scene. Each of his hairs was black at the root, red in the middle, and platinum blonde at the tip. The rest of his body was covered in leather that was completely black except for the red flame pattern on his jacket and the red crescent moons on his gloves.

"Hey, watch where you drive drunk!" Shao yelled as she got up, ignoring the pain from her bruises.

"I'm not driving drunk!" The boy said, "I'm riding high! But, thank you for re-assuring me that I still am high! I thought I was out of ambrosia, but I must be high because the last thing I ever thought I'd see in this desert wasteland is a hot chick like you!"

"I'm not a hallucination!" Shao yelled angrily, "My name is Shao, and I'm a real life dracomancer from China!"

"What the fuck!?" The boy yelled, "I didn't know you could get bad trips from amby!"

Shao slapped him.

"Oh, wow.." The boy said as he unzipped the upper portion of his jacket, revealing his face, "You really are real... Well then, hi. My name's Ziya, and I just left Iraq to go look for more drugs to try!"

Ziya's eyes were still covered by sunglasses, but Shao could see that his skin was somewhat darker than hers.

"Well, next time, watch where you're going!" Shao said, "Look at what happened to my camel because of you!"

"Oh, you mean that camel that you stole from that ranch back in Afghanistan?" Ziya asked matter-of-factly.

"How did you know that...?" Shao asked as her eyes widened, "Are you some kind of medium? No way! Who's ever heard of a psychic biker!? You must be a spy!"

"Well, technically, I'm a narc." Ziya said, "But, what I find hard to believe is that you're a dracomancer!"

"What even is a narc!?" Shao asked.

"Oh, I see." Ziya said, "You haven't spent much time outside of China, have you? Well, the rest of the world isn't quite as magical as China. Instead of being born with magical abilities that can be awoken through training, most of us require... Other forms of stimulation. It began when the Americans gave their soldiers some drugs that ended up giving them ESP. They called it remote viewing. Inevitably, it wasn't long before said drugs ended up on the black market. A narcopath is someone who gets clairvoyant powers from drugs. A narcokinetic is someone who gets telekinetic powers from drugs. A narcomancer is someone who gets both kinds of powers from drugs. I'm a narcomancer because I usually just try whatever I can find!"

"So, I guess you got bored of the drugs in Iraq." Shao said.

"Not really." Ziya said, "I just ran out of dealers."

"How did they all die?" Shao asked naively.

"Well, you see, I think money in general is a faulty economic system." Ziya said with a mad grin as Shao noticed the assault rifle on his back, "I believe in bartering. Their drugs for my bullets."

2: Reconciliation

"So, let me get this straight." Shao said, "You killed every drug dealer in Iraq."

"Well, at least all the ones I could find in the city where I lived." Ziya said, "I don't know. More might have sprung up after I left. I certainly left them in demand."

"You know..." Shao said, "You wouldn't have had to leave and search for more drugs if you had just paid for the drugs and kept the dealers alive."

"Let me tell you something about money." Ziya said, "No, let me tell you something about employment. It's not something that's easy to achieve in countries where it isn't forced upon you."

Shao didn't know whether to feel guilty, embarrassed, or just plain naive. So instead, she came to the realization that she was thirsty.

"Can we get something to drink?" Shao asked, realizing that her question would probably seem to Ziya as if it came out of nowhere unless he was reading her mind.

"We're in the middle of the desert." Ziya said.

Shao's eyes widened at the epiphany that having spent days in the desert was probably the reason why she was thirsty.

"Well, isn't there usually a bar in the middle of the desert in movies and stuff?" Shao asked before answering her own question that Ziya wouldn't have known the answer to anyways, "Yeah! Movies these days always open on a badass biker guy just like you riding through the desert until he comes upon a bar and starts killing everyone in it to show off his badass fighting skills!"

"I guess, maybe in China..." Ziya said, unable to think of a single movie that fit Shao's description.

"Well, do you know of any bars around here?" Shao asked.

"Look, Shao." Ziya said, "I don't even know what country we're in, and you don't either, but I could probably try to locate a bar. Just give me a sec."

Ziya unzipped one of the many pockets in his leather jacket and took out a small plastic jar in which only two blue pills remained. He took out one of the pills and swallowed it dry before putting the jar back in his pocket and zipping it back up.

"Ok." Ziya said, "I think I'm starting to comprehend the general direction of the nearest bar."

Ziya walked over to his motorcycle, which was now lying still on its side much like the dead camel next to it. He pushed it back up and got onto the seat.

"Come on!" Ziya said, "There's room for two! Ha, that's the first time I ever said that where I wasn't referring to a coffin!"

Shao got onto the seat of the motorcycle, behind Ziya, clining to him for stability. Ziya zipped his jacket all the way up, once again concealing his face. But, he unzipped one of his pockets, pulled out a long red scarf, and handed it to Shao, who was surprised to see that any of his pockets contained anything other than drugs.

"We'll be going really fast." Ziya said, "So, you're going to need this to protect you from the desert wind. Just tie it around your face or something."

"This color doesn't match my outfit!" Shao said, looking down at the scarf in her hands.

"Well, tough titties!" Ziya said, "I killed the person wearing it because I wanted it for myself, not for you! In fact, I didn't even know you existed until now!"

"Well then, it looks like I'm not the only one concerned about fashion." Shao said, "Nice hair by the way."

"I know, right!?" Ziya boasted, "Doesn't it look like a fucking explosion!? It's epic!"

Ziya started up the motorcycle without warning Shao, who was fortunately able to tie the scarf over her face before getting too much sand in her eyes and nostrils. The motorcycle splashed through the wake of the camel's blood and continued onwards into the desert as Ziya's clairvoyant image of the bar and its location became clearer in his mind. Both teenagers had completely lost track of time, but after what felt like an hour, they reached the small run-down bar, which was still far from civilization. Ziya parked the motorcycle outside the bar, next to several other motorcycles including one with a burning skull pattern that made him feel jealous. Shao pulled her scarf down, deciding that she liked it around her neck and that the color actually contrasted her outfit nicely.

When the two of them entered the bar, the first thing they heard was the radio going on about the earthquake in Italy.

"Shut up!" The bartender, a large man with dark tattooed skin and a blonde mohawk, raged drunkenly as he pounded his fist onto the radio's off button, "I don't care how many people died!"

As far as Shao could tell, all of the other people in the bar were also men. She began to feel afraid to order an alcoholic beverage, fearing that she would pass out and be raped, for even though she was on the first and heaviest day of her period, the fact that these men wouldn't let a little blood bother them was made evident by the sheer amount of it splattered across many of their bare chests.

"Do you know if they serve tea here?" Shao asked in a timid voice, which combined with her innocent question to make her sound unintentionally yet laughably immature.

"You like tea!?" Ziya laughed at her for a completely different reason, "You are so stereotypical! Let me guess, you want rice with that tea? Hey, wait a minute... Got any opium?"

"No!" Shao yelled, blushing in embarrassment and stomping her foot in anger.

Several of the men in the bar, evidently sex-starved and into tsundere girls, turned their heads to see Shao, who was wearing nothing but a pseudo-militaristic crop top, short shorts, combat boots, and a scarf.

3: Exaltation

"Hey there, girl." One of the men said in a voice that indicated and absence of intelligence as he stood up and lumbered drunkenly over to Shao, "Let me buy you a drink."

His hair was black and unkempt with long bangs. His skin was full of tattoos of symbols both occult and futuristic and was pale by the relative standards of the Middle East. But, what disturbed Shao the most were the various chunks of flesh that were missing from the man's skin, exposing some of his bones. Shao turned her head to Ziya, giving him a confused look, hoping he would know at least something more about the situation.

"Either that guy's on something in the krokodil family, or..." Ziya said.

Too disturbed to finish his own sentence by the possibility of what could be going on, Ziya walked over to the bartender.

"So, those ugly motherfuckers with the patches of skin missing." Ziya said to the bartender, "They aren't... Zombies, are they?"

"Welcome to Corpse Country, kid." The bartender said, "At least you appear to have come prepared. Your girlfriend, on the other hand, I can't say the same about."

"At least you respect the fact that she's mine!" Ziya said, confidently owning up to the bartender's assumption, "Hey, Shao! Now would be a good time to prove that you're a dracomancer! But first, let me get some theme music going for you..."

With his extrasensory powers still awakened from the drug that he had taken to help him find the bar, Ziya was able to know exactly which radio station would have the most fitting song for the impending fight. First, he turned on the radio.

"Argentinean supermodel warlord Estela Peralta Ortiz is reported to have been seen amassing troops on the Chilean border." The voice on the radio said.

"Leave it to feminism..." Ziya groaned as he turned the dial on the radio until he came upon a channel that was playing the song Hymn To The Lone Sands by Leaves' Eyes, "Well, don't just stand there! Fight!"

"You want me to kill these guys!?" Shao asked.

"Yes!" Ziya said, "They're zombies!"

Shao began to fight me men, demonstrating her graceful fighting skills in perfect synchronicity to the music and killing an impressive amount of them with her bare hands.

"Well..." Ziya said, "Are you going to summon a dragon?"

"Do you want me to?" Shao asked, mid-fight.

"Yes!" Ziya said, dumbfounded.

"Ok." Shao said, "I'll try. But, you hold them off while I try to focus."

"The hardest part of that will be leaving any left for you." Ziya said as he grabbed onto the AR-15 that was strapped to his back and positioned it in his hands.

Shao back-flipped her way out of the area of action, stood still, closed her eyes, and began to focus on trying to summon a dragon as Ziya shot down whatever zombies came too close to either of them. The floor opened up beneath the zombies and whatever other non-zombie bar patrons there might have been, not that they were particularly distinguishable from zombies. Rising from the crack in the floor was what appeared to be a giagantic earthworm.

"So, that's what you call a dragon!?" Ziya asked.

"Wait for it." Shao said.

The worm-like dragon began to grow a shell that first appeared as armor but soon took on the familiar appearance of the reptilian head and neck of a dragon.

"You see, dragons are actually giant worms." Shao explained as the dragon breathed fire at the zombies, all the while fighting the zombies herself and dodging her dragon's flames, "Or rather, worms are small dragons. What was once believed to be a dragon's tongue is actually its main body, and the rest is just a quickly-hardening exoskeleton that it secretes in order to survive above ground. The reason why small worms don't secrete such an exoskeleton is because it is only needed to support those large enough to be considered dragons."

By the time Shao finished talking, everybody in the bar was dead except for Shao, Ziya, and the bartender. The dragon returned down into the ground as Shao panted in exhaustion from the fight.

"The air..." Shao said as she limped over to Ziya and passed out in his arms, "Is so dry here..."

Ziya knew that Shao needed something to drink and that she would rather have tea than alcohol. He carried her passed-out body over to the bartender's area and sat her down in a seat. Then, he pointed his gun to the bartender's head.

"Answer truthfully." Ziya said, "Do you serve tea here?"

"Does this look like the kind of place that would serve tea!?" The bartender asked rhetorically.

"Yes or no!" Ziya said as he cocked the gun.

"No!" The bartender stammered, "Now, get that gun away from my head!"

"Only if you promise not to tell anyone what you just saw happen here!" Ziya said, knowing that some of the people who he and Shao had killed weren't zombies but actual people with possible families.

"I promise!" The bartender cried.

Ziya smiled, feeling empowered at the fact that he, a boy just about to turn 15 in a few weeks, was able to make a grown man cry. He had seen how drunk this man was, and he knew he couldn't take any chances, so he blew his head off anyway before thoroughly looting all of the dead bodies in the bar for whatever drugs and/or ammunition they might have had on them. After investigating the part of the bar where the drinks were made, he couldn't find anything that seemed like it would have a 100% chance of not being alcoholic, so he decided it was better to just leave than try to give Shao something she wouldn't have wanted to drink. He carried her out of the bar, and this time, he got on the motorcycle with the burning skull pattern that he had been eyeing. He put the red scarf back over her face, and to make sure she wouldn't all off behind him, he was able to strap her to his back with the strap of his assault rifle.

4: Inversion

It was morning by the time Ziya arrived at a city. Most of what he rode through was nothing but empty desert with the most notable thing he passed being a crashed fighter jet that he wouldn't have known how to pilot anyway. Shao had managed to sleep the whole way there, having been drained from her fight at the bar. Ziya, on the other hand, never slept and didn't need to because of all of the energy his drugs would give him. He parked his motorcycle against one of the abandoned buildings on the outskirts of the city, which wasn't much more than rubble, as most cities were in Corpse Country. The blue pill that he had taken in order to remote view the bar was a rare and powerful drug called equilibrium. It was the most powerful entheogen he knew of, but its effect only lasted a day or two on average, and it had almost completely worn off for him. He had a feeling that the only way to get Shao to wake up would be to give her tea, but he didn't know if he could trust his fading intuition. He wished he knew what her favorite flavor of tea was. He had one pill of equilibrium left, but he didn't want to take it, fearing the withdrawals he would have if he ended up in a worse situation with no equilibrium.

Ziya wandered through the city, carrying Shao, still sleeping, on his back. He eventually came upon what could pass for a market in Corpse Country, an open clearing with merchants at stands. He walked up to the closest merchant, an old man with a fire-colored ponytail and one of his eyes sewn shut. The merchant looked suspiciously at Ziya. After all, Ziya had his leather jacket zipped all the way up over his face with his sunglasses filling in the eye holes, and he had a passed-out girl and an assault rifle on his back. In a vain attempt to make the merchant lighten up, he followed a social convention he didn't necessarily understand and unzipped his jacket and hung his sunglasses down in the collar of his shirt, revealing his brown skin, black eyes, pointed eyebrows, and upside-down-triangle soul patch.

"So, what do you sell here?" Ziya asked with obviously fake optimism in his voice and expression, still trying to get the merchant to lighten up.

"Not much." The merchant said with suspicion seething through both his voice and his one good eye, "Mostly just food and drinks."

"Oh?" Ziya said, "Any tea?"

"Tea." The merchant said, caught off guard and attempting to process Ziya's unexpected response, "Well, I don't have any ayahuasca if that's what you're asking for."

"I wasn't." Ziya said, "But since you brought it up, I can't help but wonder, are you narc-friendly?"

"Absolutely not!" The merchant said angrily.

With his eyes, Ziya scanned the shelves behind the merchant. Sure enough, he found a shelf that held several jars of tea. He tilted his head to the side to read the labels on the teas that were obscured by the merchant's head being in the way. As soon as he found a tea with a Chinese name, he was dead-set on getting it for Shao. Anything for her. She may have been tsundere, but he was yandere.

"Well, how much for the Jin Hou tea?" Ziya asked.

"I don't even want to know what kind of concoction you plan to use it for, but..." The merchant said before giving the price in Corpse Country's currency.

Money was the one thing Ziya had forgotten to loot from the zombies, but that wasn't as much of a matter of ignorance as it was of apathy. At this point, he wanted desperately to blow the head off of the merchant like he had done to so many drug dealers in dark alleys before. But, this wasn't a dark alley. It was an open marketplace, and there would be too many witnesses.

"Die, enemy of peace!" An obnoxious-sounding woman's voice said, "Eternal glory to the Crystal Sphere!"

Ziya noticed the knife at his throat, ducked and rolled away from it as well as he could with Shao still on his back, and popped back up behind the woman. He could see that she had short blonde hair with pink highlights and a white silk robe with blue trim.

"A religious fanatic, I take it." Ziya said, talking fast as he dodged the woman's continuous knife thrusts, "Thanks for alerting me that you were about to kill me. You really saved my life there! Say, are you one of those priestesses from that cult I heard about once where they have this shrine with a life-sized solid-gold statue of their god with a boner and they fuck it every day to worship him?"

The cultist, now thoroughly annoyed at Ziya, aimed her knife less than a centimeter away from Shao's throat. The danger Shao sensed, even from within her deep sleep, was enough to wake her up. She didn't know what to make of her new surroundings. Wherever she was, it was nothing like the high fantasy utopia where she grew up except for one thing. Whatever this cultist was wearing, it looked a lot like a hydromancer's robe, and hydromancers had always been the rivals of the sun cult that she had spent most of her life as a member of. Shao loosened the strap of the gun that was holding her to Ziya's back and dropped to the ground with the gun in her hands. She didn't normally like to use weapons since they hadn't been of much use to her in Yinshi where the most common of enemies included ghosts that couldn't be effected by them, but she wasn't in Yinshi anymore.

"Shao!" Ziya said excitedly, "You're awake! Before you kill the bitch in the white robe, shoot the old merchant, but try to make it look like a mistake as if you were aiming for her! You'll understand why soon enough!"

With the reflexes of the trained martial artist she was, Shao shot both the merchant and the cultist dead, only needing to use one bullet for each.

"I really liked the song that you played for me at the bar!" Shao said to Ziya as she stood up to face him.

"Thanks." Ziya said, "I chose it for you because ever since I first ran into you, you have been my Goddess Of The Desert."

Ziya's romantic words were refreshing to Shao after all of the cheap flirtation she had received from the zombies, but Shao was still confused by the ruined city that surrounded her.

"Thanks, I guess." Shao said, blushing, "But, what is this place!?"

"Welcome the fuck to Corpse Country!" Ziya said with a grin and a wild look in his newly exposed eyes, "At least we've come prepared! Now, let's get you some tea!"

5: Abundance

Delighted at the very thought of tea, Shao ran over to the shelves and grabbed the entire jar of Jasmine Green Tea.

"This is my favorite flavor of all time!" Shao squealed.

"You got your tea?" Ziya said, "Good. We're fortunate enough to have not been the ones to start this scene. Now, let's run before any other bigots catch us at it!"

Shao and Ziya ran away from what could be called Corpse Country's version of a town square and into a more secluded corner of the complex maze that was created by the ruins of the many abandoned skyscrapers.

"We should be able to steep the tea easily enough, considering how hot it is here..." Ziya said.

"If only I had thought to steal some water as well!" Shao said.

"We could kill some more people and use their blood!" Ziya said, "Just kidding. Blood really takes away from the flavor of tea."

Shao didn't want to know how Ziya knew that.

"But, to be honest, it would probably be cleaner than any natural water source we could find here." Ziya said, "Then again, there probably aren't any natural water sources anywhere around this city since it's in the desert. Wait, that reminds me... The Euphrates River! I'm not 100% sure, but I think it runs through Corpse Country! If that's true, then like any desert country, Corpse Country would be most likely to build its largest cities along a river!"

"Let's ask around for directions to the Euphrates!" Shao said.

Shao and Ziya stayed outside the town square to avoid conflict, so it was a while before they finally came across another person.

"Hey, there's somebody!" Shao said.

Ziya didn't even notice until Shao pointed at a child in a black robe hiding in the ruins.

"Hey, kid!" Ziya said, "Which way to the Euphrates River!?"

"My name is Leina." The child said in a voice softer than Shao and Ziya were used to hearing from each other or anyone else in Corpse Country, yet devoid of emotion.

"Bullshit!" Ziya said, as if Leina's voice alone didn't give away her gender, "That's a girl's name!"

"I am a girl." Leina said, pulling down her hood to reveal her face.

Leina's hairstyle was a short bowl cut with a somewhat longer braid on the left side, she wore a black eyepatch over her right eye, her fingernails were painted black and trimmed into the shape of claws, and the darkness of her skin along with the thick black eyeliner around her golden yellow eyes suggested that she was Egyptian in origin.

"But, you don't have any titties!" Ziya said.

"I am 11 years old." Leina said.

"Yeah!" Shao said, "Just because I've had perfect D's ever since I was 10 doesn't mean all girls are the same way!"

"Well, could you show us the way to the Euphrates?" Ziya asked Leina.

"Yes." Leina said.

After a long walk through the back alleys of the city, the three of them came upon not a river, but a wall that seemed to go on forever.

"I don't see a river!" Ziya said.

"The river is completely contained by the wall." Leina said.

"Damn conservatives!" Ziya said, "Always building walls..."

"What do you know of walls!?" Shao asked, glaring at Ziya.

Ziya facepalmed, remembering that Shao was Chinese. He thought he had done the right thing to let go of stereotypical assumptions when Shao's favorite tea turned out to not be the one with the Chinese name, but he had apparently gone too far in the other direction.

"Do you know if there's any way to get to the river?" Ziya asked Leina.

"The only entrance is through the Great Ziggurat." Leina said.

"That must be it!" Shao said, pointing to an unmistakable ziggurat large enough to dwarf the wall that ran through it, "Right?"

"Yes." Leina said, "But, I must warn you that there is currently a war being fought within the Great Ziggurat."

"Well, welcome the fuck to Corpse Country..." Ziya said, "Come on, let's go!"

Shao and Leina followed Ziya as he ran towards the Great Ziggurat.

"Wait, not you!" Ziya said to Leina.

"You do not want me to help you anymore?" Leina asked, "You still appear to be in great need of my advice."

"Yeah, let her stay with us!" Shao said, "There's no way I could leave her behind! I see too much of myself in her! She acts exactly like I did when I was her age, always trying to hold back her emotions in an attempt to be taken seriously! Besides, we can never have too many friends!"

"Ok, fine!" Ziya said, wishing he could forget about the very concept of friends and secretly hoping Leina would die in the war, "For now at least..."

Once they had gotten close enough to the Great Ziggurat, it was night, but the ziggurat was illuminated by torches, and they could see many cultists fighting around and on top of it. Some of them were wearing white and blue robes like the cultist Shao killed earlier, and the others had black robes and black claw-shaped nails like Leina.

"Are those hydromancers!?" Shao growled.

"No." Leina said, "Although their robes appear similar to those of Chinese hydromancers, they are the Cult Of The Firmament. They are fighting the Cult Of The Abyss, which I am a member of."

Having already killed a member of the Cult Of The Firmament and allied a member of the Cult Of The Abyss, it was clear which side Shao and Ziya would take in the war.

"All right!" Ziya said, "Looks like we're on Team Badass!"

Ziya definitely preferred the aesthetic of the Cult Of The Abyss. Some of the Abyss cultists, higher in rank, were wearing animal skulls as masks.

"Time to fucking destroy some bigots!" Ziya said with an expression of pure madness before rushing towards the Great Ziggurat.

6: Religion

"Go ahead and infiltrate the ziggurat while I take care of the cultists on the outside of it!" Shao said to Ziya.

Ziya put his sunglasses back on and rushed straight into the entrance of the Great Ziggurat, ignoring the cultists fighting all around it. Most of the cultists were using knives, but Ziya was able to dodge the bullets of the few who had guns. Shao stayed back, so as to not get the cultists' attention as she focused her mind to try to summon dragons. Leina stayed with Shao, not out of fear, but out of strategy to avoid the possibility of dying.

Shao was able to raise four massive dragons out of the sand. All of the cultists fighting on the outside of the ziggurat became scared as the dragons circled around the building. Shao was able to telepathically control the dragons to only attack the Firmament cultists, but several Abyss cultists also died in the collateral damage of her dragons' fire.

Meanwhile, in the Great Ziggurat's main entrance hall, Ziya swallowed five small white tablets, combat pills, before gunning down a significant amount of the many cultists that crowded the ziggurat's interior.

"Show some mercy!" One of cultists who Ziya shot said in her last dying breath, "I'm pregnant!"

"Thanks for telling me!" Ziya said as he stood on top of the cultist's corpse and unloaded his assault rifle into her pregnant stomach, "We can't have lone war-born sole survivor raising himself like a badass and growing up to lead an army of rebels against the heretics who killed his entire sect! That would just be too cliche!"

Ziya put another clip of ammo into his gun before continuing on to hunt for cultists throughout the corridors of the Great Ziggurat.

It was by this time that all of the Firmament cultists on the outside of the ziggurat had been killed by Shao's dragons. As Shao made her way into the ziggurat's entrance, Leina followed along, not knowing that the main thing on Shao's mind was still finding a source of water so that she could make tea. The few Firmament cultists in the room who hadn't been killed by Ziya or the Abyss cultists soon died at the hands and roundhouse kicks of Shao. Deciding that she would need a weapon to fight the sheer amount of cultists that awaited deeper in the ziggurat, Shao carefully examined and compared the knives of the many slain cultists before settling on a serrated switchblade for herself.

"You want one?" Shao asked Leina, offering her a different knife.

"It would be useful." Leina said, accepting the knife from Shao.

By this time, Ziya was in a room on the second floor, intended to be a party room, with walls of stained glass covered in elegant floral patterns as well as the blood of many a slain cultist. The only two people still alive in the room were Ziya and the man who he was fighting. This man's robe was similar to those of the other Cultists Of The Firmament but slightly different, signifying him as the cult leader. There wasn't anything too interesting about his short black hair, but his sunken eyes were deep and bloodshot and the rest of his face was covered by a white cloth. In his hands, he held a Tavor. Ziya and the cult leader continued to shoot at each other and dodge each other's bullets as the glass of the walls began to shatter around them. Being unable to help but wonder if this cult leader was also a narc of some sort, Ziya noticed the many jars of drugs on the shelves and tables of the room. As tempting as the drugs looked to him, he tried not to let them distract him and instead thought of them as a reward to motivate himself to defeat the cult leader. It was then that Shao entered the room, flipping over the shattered glass of one of the destroyed walls. Both Ziya and the cult leader stopped shooting at each other, the latter because of how surprised he was to see someone who looked like her.

"Why, hello there..." The cult leader said creepily as he walked up to Shao, "What a beautiful specimen you are! My visions indicated the coming of a dracomancer, but it seemed so random that I disregarded it as a misinterpretation. But even if I was expecting you, I wouldn't have expected you to look so... How to say it... Well, you've certainly managed to make my dragon rise."

"Hey, Shao!" Ziya said, "Want to help me kill this guy!?"

"You know this girl!?" The cult leader asked, "So, her name is Shao... Hello, Shao. You can call me Malak. I am the leader of the Cult Of The Firmament. This is the room where we hold some of our finest, sexiest rituals. I would love to have you join and be a part of them."

"Get the fuck away from my girl!" Ziya said, raising his gun back up and pointing it at Malak.

"Let her answer for herself!" Malak said.

"How about no fucking way!" Shao said, forcing Malak several feet backwards with a lightning-fast kick to his stomach.

"But, why!?" Malak asked.

"Well, some people like to call it demisexuality." Shao said, "But, I like to call it basic human decency!"

With her newly acquired switchblade, Shao charged at Malak. It was then that Leina entered the room.

"Oh, hi Leina." Ziya said, unable to hide his disappointment that she was still alive.

"See?" Malak said with Shao's switchblade now jutting into his shoulder, "You already have this girl and probably several more in your harem back in Iraq. The least you can do is let me have the sexy dracomancer!"

"Shao is my one and only!" Ziya raged at Malak's racist assumption, "I would never cheat on her or allow her to cheat on me! And as for this other girl here, I don't care if she lives or dies!"

"The feeling is mutual." Leina said.

"Then, I'll kill you both!" Malak said, aiming his gun at Ziya and Leina.

7: Establishment

Malak held down on the trigger of his gun. There was a clicking sound, but no bullets came out.

"Unbelievable!" Malak said, "I'm all out of ammo!"

"Damn!" Ziya said, "I won't be able to loot any from you!"

"But, that's ok!" Malak said, "I still have more than enough to take you down!"

Malak threw off his robe, revealing his hideous crooked smile as well as approximately twenty knives held in place by the various belts that crisscrossed his flesh, which was ravaged with boils, blisters, and the like from the side effects of various drugs.

Leina threw off her robe, revealing a cute pastel goth outfit, her T-shirt printed with the words Not Listening.

"You really are a disgusting man!" Shao said to Malak, "Now, I really feel sorry for all of the poor girls you've brainwashed into having sex with you!"

Shao and Malak charged at each other and clashed knives. While Malak was distracted, Ziya ran over to a shelf to examine the drugs on it. His grin widened as he began to stare at a jar of black and red pills on the top of the shelf. He knew very well that he was looking at ragnarok, one of the most dangerous drugs of all time. The jar was too high for him to reach, but he had an idea.

"Hey, Shao!" Ziya said, "See if you can bring that dumbass over this way!"

"Ok!" Shao said in foolhardy obedience with no understanding whatsoever of Ziya's strategy.

Shao began do dodge Malak's attacks by doing flips in Ziya's direction. Eventually, Malak was close enough for Ziya to jump onto his back. From there, Ziya was able to reach the jar of pills, but he ended up knocking it onto the floor, causing the jar to shatter and the black and red pills to roll all across the room.

"Hey, that's not a bad idea!" Malak said as he began to run after the pills.

Ziya was infuriated. He knew exactly what ragnarok could do, and he didn't want to end up on the receiving end of it. His only hope was to swallow one of those pills before Malak. He wanted to give Shao another order to stop Malak, but at the same time, he didn't want to draw any more attention to his plans. He just had to hope that she would know what to do.

Sure enough, Malak, distracted by the pills, found himself with Shao's knife in his side. With the knife still in her hand, Shao skidded in front of Malak, cutting his stomach open. With his blood now pouring onto the floor, weakened but still somehow alive, Malak turned his head to see Ziya taking one of the ragnarok pills.

"What kind of power do those pills give you anyway?" Shao asked.

"Necrokinesis." Ziya said as he glared at Malak and made him explode into blood, "The power to make people fucking die. Top shelf for a reason."

Shao looted Malak's knives as Ziya looted many of the ragnarok pills that were now scattered across the room.

"So, what'll happen now that the leader of the Cult Of The Firmament, and most of his cultists for that matter, are dead?" Shao asked.

"The war will continue until they are all dead." Leina said.

"With us here, I think it's safe to say that's pretty damn close to happening!" Ziya said.

"Yeah!" Shao said, "And then, we can keep looking for water so that I can make my tea! How about we do that now and kill whatever enemy cultists we run into along the way!"

"Great idea!" Ziya said.

The three of them went back downstairs and continued to search for the river. They eventually found themselves in a library, devoid of live cultists but littered with dead ones.

"The Euphrates River is underground." Leina said, "We will need to go even farther down in order to find it."

"I figured as much." Ziya said.

"Then, why did you end up upstairs?" Leina asked.

"The stairs leading  down were so hard to find that I guess I just gave up looking for them."

"Then, I guess we'll just have to look harder!" Shao said.

"It sure would be cliche if one of these bookshelves was secretly a trap door!" Ziya said, leaning on a bookshelf.

Sure enough, the bookself fell over, taking Ziya with it and revealing a dark grey dusty room with not much in it except for a few skeletons and stairs leading down. Ziya got up, brushed some dust off of his jacket and continued onwards down the stairs with Shao and Leina following behind him.

This floor of the Great Ziggurat, if it could even still be considered part of the Great Ziggurat, was dark to say the least. The walls were lined with torches, but most of them were unlit. Shao didn't think she could see anyone or anything alive in the wide room that they had ended up in, but it was hard to tell. Ziya quickly ran around the room to see what he could find. There wasn't anything alive in it, but there were corpses at various stages of decay as well as several empty, broken, glass bottles. Most of the corpses were wearing black robes, indicating that they were members of the Cult Of The Abyss, and the fact that many of them were leaning against a large obsidian statue of a cat with garnets for eyes and they had knives in their hearts seemed to suggest that they had sacrificed themselves.

"So, you're a suicide cultist." Ziya said to Leina.

"No." Leina said, "What I am could actually be referred to as the opposite of a suicide cultist."

"A homicide cultist!?" Ziya said, "That's badass!"

"Not necessarily." Leina said, "Although I do murder people, what I meant to say is that I am from a different branch of the Cult Of The Abyss. My body was not what was ritualistically removed from me."

"Then, what was?" Shao asked.

"My soul." Leina said.

8: Purpose

"Then, that makes you..." Shao said hesitantly, "A zombie?"

"I could be considered one." Leina said, "However, there is a more specific term that I fall under the description of. I, along with most members of the Cult Of The Abyss who aren't outright dead, are scavengers. While the scavenger is technically a subspecies of zombie, scavengers are not normally thought of as zombies by those not versed in necrology. Like most zombie subspecies, the main difference from the standard zombie is the way in which the body undergoes a mutation that mine is still in the early stages of. I cannot find the words to describe the distinct look of an advanced-stage scavenger, but I assure you it is not the decay that can be seen on basic zombies. Given my cult's presence in these catacombs, you will probably end up seeing what a heavily mutated scavenger looks like soon enough."

"Well, let's go explore!" Shao said.

Shao ran through an archway, leaving Ziya and Leina with no choice but to follow behind her. The three of them found themselves in a hall, relatively short and simple for the labyrinthine catacombs they were now in, with a single turn that lead to another room. This room was smaller than the one they had just been in, but it was also emptier except for a single not-quite-human being with iridescent white scaly skin and the all-too-human corpse he was gnawing on.

"Is that a scavenger!?" Ziya asked, readying his assault rifle.

"No." Leina said, "That is a draconic, an underground subhuman entity that the government doesn't want you to know about. Despite their name and appearance, they are not actually related to dragons."

The draconic locked his glowing eyes with Ziya. Noticing Ziya's gun, he stood up and raised his javelin.

"So, he's not undead." Ziya said, "Good! I can kill him! I'd like to get as much use out of this pill as I can before it runs out!"

Ziya used his necrokinesis to make the draconic explode into blood. Not much remained for him to loot, but he was able to fasten the blood-stained upper jaw to his right shoulder as an epaulet. All of the doors in the room excluding the one that they entered through were locked. Ziya didn't want to waste any of his ammo trying to gun down the doors, but Shao was able to kick one of them down.

This time, they came upon a wide room with a wall lined with dragon-shaped fountains that poured into a canal.

"Water!" Shao squealed delightedly, "Now, I can make my tea!"

"The water here isn't as warm as it is above ground." Ziya said, "You'll need to go back to the room with the torches to heat it up."

Shao would need something to carry the water back to that room, but the only jar she had was the one that held the tea, and she didn't want to waste all of it.

"Do you have any empty jars?" Shao asked Ziya.

"I have something close enough..." Ziya said.

Ziya pulled out the small jar that contained his last blue equilibrium pill. He took the pill out of the jar and put it back in his pocket. There was no point in using the jar to sort it anymore since it was the only one he had left.

"I was hoping for something with more capacity!" Shao whined.

"Well, tough titties!" Ziya said, "I probably wouldn't be able to fit anything bigger in my pocket. Now, take it and you can use your scarf to strain the tea in it."

Shao thought about running back and forth between the canal room and the torch room to continuously gather water and heat it up until she had an adequate amount of tea, but she decided that all of the running back and forth would just make her even thirstier. Still disappointed at the size of the jar, she reluctantly scooped it into the canal and retraced her steps into the torch room with Ziya and Leina following behind her. She put the jar up to one of the few lit torches to try to heat it up, but the light of the torch revealed something even more disappointing.

"What!?" Shao exclaimed, dropping and shattering the jar in her shock, "This isn't water!"

"Let me guess." Ziya said, struggling to hide his amusement as his sides shook with suppressed laughter, "Blood."

"Yes..." Shao cried, "But, why!?"

"Welcome to Corpse Country!" Ziya said, "You should've come prepared!"

Unable to think of a comeback, Shao hung her head down in the shame of defeat before flashing puppydog eyes at Ziya in a last ditch effort for sympathy.

"Come on." Ziya said, reaching his hand out to Shao to help her back up, "Didn't you want to explore?"

"I'm not sure anymore..." Shao said as she stood up.

Shao couldn't help but wonder if Ziya was using her desire to explore as an excuse to hide his own, but once again, any deep thought she might have had was over-ridden by thoughts of tea.

"At least I didn't put the tea in the water before I tried to heat it up..." Shao said, "I wouldn't have wanted to waste any tea! Now, let's go look for more water!"

"Ok, but I don't have any more empty jars..." Ziya said.

"Then, we'll just have to look for someone who has a jar!" Shao said, "Or even better, a cup!"

Instead of going through the obvious archway, Shao decided to kick down another door. Once the door fell to the ground, it activated a trap. A barrage of needles fell from the ceiling, but with her reflexes, Shao was able to quickly roll to the side to dodge the needles. Ziya and Leina waited for the needles to stop falling before catching up with Shao and following her through an extremely long and twisted hall lined with corpses.

"Where did all of these corpses come from anyways?" Shao asked.

"What an excellent question!" A man's voice said.

9: Indulgence

The first thing Shao noticed about the man were his eyes, which glowed green in the darkness of the tunnel. Upon closer examination, she could see that he was wearing a black trench coat and his black hair was mostly short and curly with a long braid extending from the nape of his neck. Behind him was a wheel barrel, which he was filling with corpses.

"As I'm sure can tell by the ruins you've probably seen, this country has been the victim of many bombings." The man said, "Inevitably, they ran out of space in graveyards alone. The only way left for them to keep the bodies from piling up in the streets, at least that they could think of, was to build these catacombs!"

"Are you a grave robber?" Shao asked, noticing the man's collection of corpses.

"I prefer to call myself a corpse trader." The man said.

"He's a grave robber." Ziya said, "Although, to be honest, my first guess would have been gay tour guide."

"Follow me, and we can keep talking." The corpse trader said, "I have to get these bodies back to the corpse cart before I can fit any more in my wheel barrel."

Shao, Ziya, and Leina followed the corpse trader, but only because they where in a hall where the only options were to go forwards or backwards and they had already seen what was behind them.

"You see, back where I come from, we have the opposite problem." The corpse trader explained, "You know, Haiti is where necromancy was first invented, or discovered if you will. But, there's been so much necromancy going on there lately that they're running out of bodies. Now, the best place to collect a commodity is wherever there's a surplus of it, so that's why I came here. After all, Corpse Country is known for its corpses! My name's Ed, by the way. It's short for Eduardo, not Edward."

"Really?" Ziya said sarcastically, "I would have guessed it stood for erectile dysfunction."

"What makes you think that!?" Ed asked, obviously not understanding sarcasm, "I'm not that old! I'm only 18!"

Ed's demeanor was childish to say the least.

"My name's Shao!" Shao said, "And, these are my friends Ziya and Leina!"

"We're a bunch of terrorists and sociopaths!" Ziya said, "So, I'm sure you'll fit right in with us!"

Ziya actually found Ed to be so annoying that the only thing keeping him from making him explode into blood was the fact that the addition of a man to his group would help to keep people from assuming that it was a harem. But once they reached what Ed had called his corpse cart, all sorts of conflicting thoughts filled Ziya's mind. Standing before him was the most badass truck he had ever seen. It was jacked up and black with green flames and skulls on it. Ziya, whether he liked Ed or not, was in awe of Ed's truck. But at the same time, it meant he could no longer use the fact that only two people could fit on a motorcycle as an excuse to ditch Leina. He decided that maybe he could use the help of Leina and Ed since they seemed to know the way around these catacombs at least better than he did.

"You want to ride?" Ed asked after he had finished loading the corpses into the truck.

"If you can take us some place that serves tea!" Shao said, "Or just hot water! That'll be fine, too! After all, I brought my own tea!"

Shao lifted up her jar of tea leaves to show it to Ed.

"Hmm..." Ed said, "Talk about a precious commodity, especially here. Well, from where we are right now, I'd say our best bet would be the Undercity! Sure! I'll take you there!"

"Dibs on the passenger seat!" Ziya said, "No, wait a minute! I take it back! I'm sitting in the back with Shao so that we can be next to each other!"

"I see." Ed said, "Well, you two lovebirds have fun!"

Ed didn't mean to imply anything sexual. He just had terrible social skills.

"I suppose this means I will be in the passenger seat." Leina said.

"You'd be right, kiddo!" Ed said.

Ziya wasn't worried at all about losing Shao to Ed. He just hoped for Leina's sake that Ed wasn't a pedophile. Once the four of them had climbed into the truck and shut the doors, Ed drove onwards through the long tunnel, which for this stretch, wasn't actually littered with corpses because Ed had already piled all of them into the back of his truck to ship back to Haiti.

"Be careful where you drive!" Shao said, "It's hard to see down here!"

"Don't you worry!" Ed said, "Like most Haitians, I'm genetically engineered for night vision!"

After hearing Ed's statement, Shao stopped wondering why his eyes were glowing, giving her mind the freedom to drift back to tea. Ziya, on the other hand, began to wonder if this was all a trap, but he decided that Ed seemed to naive to orchestrate anything of that sort.

At the end of the hall was a door too small for Ed's truck to fit through, but he rammed the truck through anyway, crumbling the earthen wall and running over the iron door. It lead to a room full of candles and cultists, both of which Ed indiscriminately ran over. Leina, having no soul, did not care about the fact that she was witnessing the deaths of several members of her own cult. The truck took a sharp turn within the room and rammed through another door, leading to another hall, which did nothing but loop back around to the same room. The surviving cultists were enraged to see that the truck had come back for another round, but Ziya took their rage as an indication that these cultists still had souls, meaning that he could kill them with his necrokinesis, which he did, making every one of them explode into blood.

"Well, whatever just happened there, it was mighty impressive!" Ed said, "But, I've got bad news for you. We're lost."

10: Repose

"By the way, which one of you made all of those people explode?" Ed asked, starting his truck back up and driving it aimlessly through the catacombs.

"That would be me!" Ziya said, "Well, with the help of these drugs, that is!"

"So, you're a narc, huh?" Ed asked, "Well, do you have any drugs that'll help us find the Undercity?"

"Well..." Ziya said, considering the equilibrium, "There is this one pill, but I don't want to take it because if I do, I'll be completely out of it and I just won't feel safe without it."

"I see." Ed said, "And, how would you rank the strength of this pill on a scale from brass knuckle to Thompson SMG?"

"Atomic fucking bomb!" Ziya said, deciding to go with the most powerful weapon he knew of in order to avoid having to get too statistical.

"Really?" Ed asked, "That powerful?"

"Pretty much!" Ziya said.

"Then, I see your dilemma." Ed said, "Something like that would certainly be hard to come by, as the demand would far outweigh the supply. And, what's the drug called?"

"Equilibrium." Ziya said.

"Oh, how ironic!" Ed laughed.

Shao and Ziya looked at each other in confusion.

"Anyone?" Ed said, "Equilibrium? Supply and demand? You know what, never mind. I do believe in the chance that we'll find you some in the Undercity. It's known for its drug market! The dealers there are certainly abundant! If anything, we may very well have more chance of finding equilibrium than tea!"

"Don't say that!" Shao said angrily yet somehow cutely.

"Well, I mean, we technically already have tea." Ed said, "But, the problem with finding water in Corpse Country is that this is a desert, and what little water there is here isn't all that clean."

"You certainly know a lot about a little." Shao said.

"Yep!" Ed said, "My knowledge is specialized! That's why they call me Special Ed!"

"I bet it is." Ziya said.

"But, what about the Euphrates?" Shao asked.

"Oh, that actually runs through these catacombs!" Ed said.

"Yeah, we know." Ziya said, "In fact, I have this nagging suspicion that we've already come across it. Say, since you're so good at statistics, about what percentage of the Euphrates is blood?"

"Oh, with all of the sacrifices going on, easily about 90% these days." Ed said.

"Oh." Shao said disappointedly, "Well, is the water in the Undercity any cleaner?"

"I'm not even sure if there is water in the Undercity." Ed said, "Like I said, my knowledge is specialized."

Suddenly, the truck fell into a chasm, which lead to what Shao could only assume was the Undercity. After all, it was an underground city. There was no sunlight, but the city was illuminated by its own neon lights. Shao wanted to summon a dragon to catch the falling truck, but she found it impossible to concentrate. As the truck plummeted down from above, the first thing to fall out of it were all of the corpses that Ed had been hauling in the back of it.

Meanwhile, down on the streets of the Undercity, some gangsters looked up to see the truck and corpses falling from the sky. Their leader was a boy with short black hair, red shutter shades, and a blood-stained silver leather outfit.

"Check it out!" The gang leader said, pointing as the truck and corpses landed on the street in front of him, "It's raining dead bodies!"

"Actually, four of us are alive!" Shao said.

"I am not alive or dead." Leina said.

"Make that three of us!" Ziya said, "Damn, are we lucky that this truck landed upright on all ten of its wheels!"

"I had it customized with the wheels wide-set like that to raise the chance of that happening." Ed said, "Statistics!"

The four of them got out of the truck to look around. Once again, Shao could see Ed standing at his full height, but now that she had gotten to know him, what had once intimidated her about him now just seemed awkward.

"Do you know where we can get any tea?" Shao asked the gang leader.

"Tea." The gang leader said, dumbfounded by the mention of something so legal.

Shao noticed the gang leader's serrated switchblade.

"Hey, our knives match!" Shao said, showing him hers.

Ziya began to twitch as Shao ran too close to the gang leader for his own comfort. He wanted her all to himself, and he couldn't allow her to engage in anything resembling flirtation with anyone other than himself. With his necrokinesis, he made the entire gang explode into blood.

"Don't you think that was a bit excessive?" Shao asked.

"I'm trying to make use of this drug before it wears off!" Ziya said.

"You've got, like, ten more pills of it!" Shao said.

"I know..." Ziya said, "I guess I was just trying to protect you."

Ziya looted all of the ammunition he could find. What little drugs he could find on them were too weak to be of any interest to him.

"Well, if you're going to loot them, don't forget to loot their money!" Ed said.

"Their... money?" Ziya asked.

"Yeah!" Ed said, "I may be rich off the corpse trade, but that doesn't mean I have any of Corpse Country's currency! We're going to need some if we want to get drugs and tea here!"

"I guess you're right." Ziya said, "It's just that I don't think I've ever done anything before like that."

"Like what?" Shao asked.

"Oh, what's the word...?" Ziya said, "Legal."

"Well, if it's something you're not used to, then I guess maybe you'd rather me take the money." Ed said.

"I'd appreciate it." Ziya said, "It would certainly lighten my load!"

Ed looted the money, and the four of them got back in the truck and began to drive down the street to explore the Undercity.

11: Manifestation

"Starbucks!" Shao squealed, pointing at the coffee shop that no city would be complete without.

"I thought you were looking for tea." Ed said.

"They have tea at Starbucks!" Shao said.

"I always thought it was a coffee place." Ed said.

"They have tea there, too!" Shao said.

"Maybe in China..." Ziya said.

Ed parked his truck in front of the Starbucks. Shao, Ziya, Leina, and Ed entered the shop together. The line was so long that it made Shao feel disappointed. Ziya, who also had a short attention span, was downright angry. Still, the four of them continued to wait in line. Shao found the vaporwave music playing on the shop's speakers to be so boring that she managed to fall asleep standing. Ed, on the other hand, was at the optimal point on the autism spectrum to enjoy vaporwave. Leina just stood there, not caring either way.

The one thing that was able to wake up Shao amidst the lulling music was the sound of gunfire. Shao opened her eyes to see several people dying with several bullets in each of their bodies.

"Hey, look!" Ed said, "The line's shorter!"

When Shao turned around, she saw that the killers were a group of people who seemed like soldiers with strange white suits. They had guns for hands, and their eye sockets were empty with red cords running out of them and connecting to various parts of their bodies.

"Get a load of these fuckboys and girls in their matching outfits!" Ziya said as if there was nothing else disturbing about the soldiers, "Their lack of individuality makes me sick! What sucks, though, is that my necrokinesis isn't working on them. They're probably robots. It figures!"

Amidst all of the sudden chaos, Shao wasn't able to concentrate enough to summon a dragon, but with her battle reflexes activated, she was able to dodge the soldiers' bullets, sneak behind them, and kill some of them with her knife. The way in which the soldiers bled suggested that they weren't exactly robots. Ziya joined in the fight with his gun, and Leina was also able to fight by using her knife as well as ripping the cords out of the soldiers' bodies. Together, they were able to kill all of the soldiers, but not before the soldiers had managed to kill most of the civilians in the coffee shop. Ed immediately and indiscriminately picked up whatever corpses he could carry and loaded them into his truck.

"A gun would be more useful than a knife." Leina said, cutting off one of the soldiers' gun-hands before tossing her knife aside in favor of it, ignoring the chunk of human flesh fused to the gun.

"Who were those guys!?" Ziya asked the barista who had somehow managed to live, "I would've asked them, but they didn't exactly seem like the talkative type. I never even heard a scream out of any of them, let alone anything articulate!"

"Well, have you heard of the Last Paladin?" The barista, named Kristal according to her name tag, a young woman with elaborate eye shadow and long blonde hair, obviously dyed as she was Arabic like most of the residents of Corspe Country, said.

"The Last Paladin...?" Shao asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"A deranged warrior bent on genocide." Kristal explained, "I don't know all of the details, but I know he's from somewhere in Europe, I assume the Vatican. His main target appears to be the Undercity with the reason being the same as why the Undercity was built to begin with: Even if someone were to nuke every square inch of the Earth's surface, those living underground would still survive."

"But, what does this have to do with those strange people I just fought with the cords running through their bodies?" Shao asked.

"They are his mind slaves." Kristal said, "They've earned the nickname of Blind Snipers because they lack eyes and have guns for hands. The cords allow the Last Paladin to telepathically control their every move like a hive mind."

"He must not be very good at it!" Ziya said, "I mean, they sure did die easily!"

"It's not a matter of a lack of strategy as much as it is a lack of empathy." Kristal said, "He views them as completely disposable."

"Sweet!" Ziya said, "Thanks to that, my friends and I all survived without a scratch!"

"Actually, I sustained one gunshot to the torso during this fight." Leina said.

"Are you ok!?" Shao asked in panic.

"Yes." Leina said, "The molecules of the bullet have dissolved into my body, merging with my anatomy to catalyze my mutation."

Shao noticed that Leina's nails were slightly longer and her teeth were somewhat sharper.

"Do you know where we can find the Last Paladin!?" Ziya asked Kristal.

"I seem to remember hearing that he's using an abandoned mall as his Undercity base." Kristal said.

"Come on, let's go!" Ziya, not bothering to thank Kristal, yelled at Ed, who was still loading corpses into the truck.

"Wait, one more thing!" Shao said, "Can I please have some tea!?"

"We only serve coffee here." Kristal said.

"That's ok!" Shao said, "I brought my own tea! All I need is some hot water!"

"All of our coffee is pre-filtered." Kristal said.

"Come on, Shao!" Ziya said, dragging Shao towards the truck.

Once the four anti-heroes had climbed into the truck, Ed began to drive down the streets of the Undercity in search of the abandoned mall.

 

12: Generation

"I'm bored." Shao said, "Can you turn on the radio?"

"I don't see why not." Ed said, turning on his truck's radio.

The first bit of information that the group was able to glean from the radio was that it was currently the 11th day of September.

"Sweet!" Ziya said, "My 15th birthday!"

"So, that means you were born in the year of..." Shao thought out loud.

"2001!" Ziya said with a thumbs up and a bit too much pride in his voice.

"So, the year of the snake." Shao said, "But, that doesn't make any sense."

"Why not?" Ziya asked.

"Your zodiac is supposed to determine your personality." Shao said, "For example, I was born in 2000, the year of the dragon, so I'm hot-blooded, graceful, and always ready for action! But, those born in the year of the snake are supposed to be quiet and obedient. Plus, being born on September 11th would make you a Virgo, which would make you serious and practical. None of this sounds like you at all!"

"Drugs can change a person." Ziya said.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Shao said, "But, if you used to be that way, I can't see why you would have wanted to start taking drugs to begin with."

"I'd rather not talk about it." Ziya said, "Although, I have a gut feeling you'll find out soon enough."

Ed kept driving until he reached what appeared to be the abandoned mall. He parked the truck in front of it and climbed out along with Shao, Ziya, and Leina. When they entered the abandoned mall, its walls covered with fading murals of mandalas, they were surprised to see that there were several groups of several people each in the main entrance room. The people all had weapons, especially guns, but they didn't seem to be soldiers because they were all dressed differently. Shao was overcome with the feeling that she had become part of something much bigger than she had bargained for on her search for adventure, excitement, and tea.

"Whoa, nice gun!" Ziya said to a man with short blonde-dyed hair, a dark brown leather outfit, and a large railgun.

"You like it?" The main said, "I got it from the gun dealer a couple of blocks down the street. Guns have become a huge commodity here in the Undercity ever since the Last Paladin came into town with a big fucking bounty on his fat head!"

"So, I guess all of these people are here to kill the Last Paladin." Shao said, "He must be hard to kill if it takes this many people!"

"He's probably weak." Ziya said, "I've learned that to be true about those who always hide behind a bunch of reinforcements."

"Where should we look first?" Shao said, noticing the several different doors leading out of the room.

"Might as well go dead ahead!" Ziya said, referring to the most straightforward door, "Or actually, let's split up! I'll be going forward with Shao. Ed and Leina can go to the left or something."

"There is strength in numbers." Leina said, knowing even without emotions that it was just plain illogical to be left with Ed, who didn't have any weapons and was completely useless in battle.

"Yeah, and from what I can tell, Shao and Ziya are our team's best fighters." Ed said, "So, the whole thing just seems a little unbalanced."

"Shao is all mine!" Ziya said, "You got that!?"

"I respect that." Leina said, "But, I have already established that it would be more strategic for the four of us to explore the Last Paladin's base together."

"Then, you know what?" Ziya said, "Fuck the establishment!"

Shao and Ziya continued onwards into the hall. Ziya's interest in Shao may have been a bit obsessive, but Shao felt comforted to know how deeply he cared about her.

"Let's check this room first." Shao said, habitually kicking down the door to the room she was referring to.

The room turned out to be completely white and empty, save for a few residual sockets in the walls and several bullet-filled corpses of those who had failed to take down the Last Paladin. There was also a crack in the ceiling, brought to Shao's attention by the bullets being shot out of it in a poor attempt to hit Shao and Ziya.

"That must be the Blind Snipers!" Ziya said, "Their aim sure does suck!"

Ziya used his gun to shoot up the ceiling until it came crumbling down, bringing the Blind Snipers down to his level so that he could fight them.

"I'll hold them off!" Ziya said to Shao, "I hope I can trust you to search the other rooms for the Last Paladin!"

"I understand!" Shao said, not really understanding, but leaving the room anyways.

Shao, after she left the room, continued down the hall until one of the few remaining store logo signs in the mall caught her eye.

"Teavana!" Shao exclaimed in awe.

As Shao ran towards the store, she was interrupted by another group of Blind Snipers that had began to shoot at her. She dodged their bullets and took three of them out with a roundhouse kick before finishing the other two off with her knife. By the time she had finished them off, she was exhausted, for as Ziya had learned from spending time with Shao, the most powerful weapons take the longest to recharge. Shao ran as quickly as she could to Teavana, hoping that she would be safe there. Unlike the other store, this one at least had shelves and counters, but Shao couldn't see any tea or anything that she could use to make tea. The counter, which the clerk would normally stand behind, was still there. Shao had learned from an early age that shoppers were forbidden from going behind counters at stores, but now that she was here all alone, just trying to survive, she didn't see any reason why she shouldn't hide behind the counter.

13: Frustration

Shao hid behind the counter, crouching down to avoid detection, but she found that she wasn't the only one there. She could see a boy about her age curled up into a fetal position in the corner of the room. The boy's long platinum blonde hair and fancy white outfit made him look like a misplaced high elf prince. Shao was intrigued by his appearance, but she didn't want him to think that she was interested in him, so she remained seated and struggled to look away from him. Her alleged disinterest would have been more convincing if she had thought to get up and leave the room, and it wasn't long before her boredom got the better of her. As she crawled up to the boy, his lack of movement made her wonder if he was even alive, so she poked him to make sure.

This caused the boy to lift his head up to look at Shao, who could now see his face. His features were European with silver eyes and a curious expression. There was a large metal plate attached to his wide forehead by red cords that seemed to bore into his skull, but when Shao compared this to all that she had already seen in Corpse Country, she didn't find his appearance disturbing. In fact, although she would refuse to admit it, she was attracted to him. The two of them stared into each other's eyes for about a minute, neither willing to initiate a conversation until Shao was once again prodded along by her boredom.

"Hi!" Shao said awkwardly cheerfully, "I'm Shao from China!"

"My name is Xellano..." The boy said shyly, "I'm from Czechoslovakia. I know my name doesn't sound Czech, but my dad was a cult leader, so he named me after a planet that he believed in, hoping that I would be some sort of messiah."

"That's ok!" Shao said, "My name means Blaze because I was born into a sun cult."

"Then, I guess we have something in common..." Xellano said, not trying to mumble on purpose, but too shy to speak up.

"I guess you'd rather not talk." Shao said with enough snark to conceal her genuine interest in Xellano.

"I'm sorry..." Xellano said, "I'm just not used to girls talking to me... Or really, anyone..."

"I don't understand why." Shao said before quickly stopping herself from calling Xellano handsome, blushing uncontrollably and retreating several inches backwards, shocked at what she was about to say.

"I'm sorry if I said something wrong..." Xellano said, misinterpreting Shao's reaction, "But, if it's not too much to ask for, please don't leave me. I'm really not used to getting this kind of attention, so once I have it, I don't want it to go away."

Ziya then entered the room, slamming the door open with one hand and holding his smoking gun in the other.

"Ziya!" Shao squealed, popping up from behind the counter and waving at Ziya.

"Shao!" Ziya said, "I knew I'd find you here!"

"Who's he...?" Xellano asked.

"My boyfriend." Shao said boastfully to let Xellano know he couldn't have her.

"Ok." Xellano said with both disappointment and acceptance, which were practically synonymous to his psyche, "I understand."

"Hey, Shao!" Ziya said once he had made it behind the counter, "Who's the milky licker?"

"This is Xellano!" Shao said defensively, "He's my new friend, so don't kill him!"

"I'll try to make an effort not to." Ziya said, not liking how crowded his group was already getting, deciding he would probably kill Xellano if both Leina and Ed made it out alive.

"So, I can follow you?" Xellano asked.

"Sure!" Shao said, "We'll protect you! Won't we?"

"What happens happens." Ziya said.

The next room they entered was immense, but with not much in it as far as inorganic matter went except for graffiti and trash. It was, however, inevitably full of corpses as well as several living people and several more undead Blind Snipers. The one thing that everybody in the room had in common was that they were trying to kill each other. Among them were Ed and Leina.

"There you are!" Ed exclaimed, running up to Shao and Ziya.

"You're alive...?" Ziya said, embarrassed to be affiliated with Ed in any way whatsoever.

"Yeah!" Ed said, "Isn't it great!? I managed to survive on dumb luck alone! Well, that and I've been using Leina as a meat shield. Also, speaking of Leina, I think she might be an arthropod now."

"Although technicalities are difficult to pinpoint mid-transformation, the most accurate term at this point would be semi-azoic." Leina said, black spikes now poking through the flesh of her right arm, her left arm now fully consumed by a thick black carapace with long claws.

"You let this happen to Leina because you couldn't fight for yourself!" Shao raged with too much concern for an undead girl who didn't even have feelings.

"Well, actually, that wasn't the main reason." Ed said, "You see, I'm the kind of guy who likes to watch time lapse videos of corpses decaying. Basically, I'm just fascinated by the distortion of the human form and all of the bizarre and beautiful processes in which it can happen."

"I bet it makes you moist..." Ziya muttered.

"Wait, who's that?" Ed asked, finally noticing Xellano.

"This is my new friend Xellano!" Shao said, "He's shy, and he doesn't seem to have a weapon, so I don't really know what he's doing here, but you don't have a weapon either, so there's something the two of you have in common! Xellano, these are my friends Ed and Leina!"

"Well, actually, I have a weapon..." Xellano said, nudging the ornate sword lavishly sheathed in his belt that looked far more ceremonial than practical.

"Umm, look." Shao said, sounding obviously fake as she struggled desperately not to talk down to Xellano, "That sword certainly looks very powerful, but just in case it might break, how about I do the fighting, and maybe Ziya can join in if he has any bullets left."

"I understand completely." Xellano said, having been lied to enough throughout his life to be able to easily detect the fakeness in Shao's voice, but having learned to accept the fact that he was too weak to fight.

14: Weakness

Shao was eager to charge into battle against the Blind Snipers until she realized that all of the ones in the room had already been killed at that point. Still, the armed Undercity citizens remained in the room, and Shao thought she could see their gaze shift to her group.

"There he is!" One of the citizens, a woman with somewhat short pink hair and a machine gun, said.

"Let's kill him!" Another citizen, a man with spiky black hair and a shotgun, said.

The two of them and several more who had survived the battle that had just taken place all appeared to have their guns aimed at Xellano.

"No!" Shao cried, "You can't kill him!"

Shao's rage was enough to cause a dragon to burst through the floor of the room and brutally slaughter all of the armed survivors before disappearing back into the ground.

"Wow!" Ed said, "I had no idea you were a real dracomancer! I just thought your boyfriend put you in a sexy dracomancer costume because he was racist!"

"I'm not racist!" Ziya raged.

"What I don't understand is why all of those people wanted to kill Xellano!" Shao said.

"Then, maybe this time..." Xellano said, "You should follow me."

Xellano lead Shao and the rest of the group into a room full of items, mostly weapons, all broken beyond use, as well as a dwindling supply of red cords like those seen on the Blind Snipers' bodies and Xellano's forehead.

"This must be where the Last Paladin re-purposes corpses into Blind Snipers!" Ed said, "How fascinating!"

"You see, throughout my life, people have told me things that contradict each other." Xellano said, "So, I really don't know who to believe... But, one message has always been clear, and that's that you're supposed to believe in yourself. Still, I am full of self doubt, but I want to be able to believe that I am everything that I could ever want to be... A god on Earth... I am... The Last Paladin."

"I knew I didn't like this guy!" Ziya said, reaching into one of his pockets and moving a ragnarok pill up to his mouth with boastfully exaggerated movements to make sure everyone saw what pill he was about to take.

"Don't make him explode!" Ed said, "Think of how valuable his corpse will be!"

"Am I the only one here who isn't a psychopath!?" Shao asked.

"Yes." Leina said.

"Look, I get that it's good to believe positive things about yourself." Shao said, "But, what I don't understand is how that has anything to with killing people and using their bodies to kill even more people!"

"Nobody listens to me..." Xellano cried, "Nobody ever obeys me. I can only get dead people to obey me by making them mind slaves! The cords in my brain are linked to the ones in their bodies, allowing me to control their every movement. In fact, I invented this technology, not that I get any credit for it!"

"I listen to you!" Shao said.

"Hey, Ed!" Ziya said, furious at Shao's love for Xellano and not wanting to be on either end of a harem, "Does his head have to be intact?"

"For maximum profit, yes!" Ed said.

"Then, I'll just have to aim for his heart!" Ziya said, pointing his gun at Xellano.

"What are you doing!?" Shao asked.

"Making sure that I am your one true love!" Ziya said, "And, there can only be one!"

"Xellano is just a friend!" Shao said, "It's not like I'm attracted to him or anything! That would be stupid!"

"Then, why are you blushing!?" Ziya said, shooting Xellano in the heart.

Xellano fell to the ground, dead.

"What goes around comes around!" Ziya said, triumphantly pointing his assault rifle upwards.

"You killed Xellano!" Shao cried, "You bastard! How could you think this would help me love you!?"

"I'm sorry." Ziya said, walking up to Shao, wanting to do whatever it would take at this point to comfort her, "I killed him for you!"

"I didn't want you to kill him!" Shao said, slapping Ziya, "Let's go... Let's leave this worthless city and go find a city that serves real tea!"

"That's the spirit!" Ziya said, "Leave the past behind! Forget about Xellano!"

"No!" Shao said, carrying Xellano's corpse in her arms, "I'm bringing Xellano with me!"

The group made it out of the mall, the sight of the Last Paladin's corpse in Shao's arms enough to alert anyone else who was still in the mall that everything had been said and done and it was time to leave.

"The corpse is going to have to go in the back of the truck with the other corpses." Ed said once they had made it to his truck.

"If Xellano's going in the back of the truck, then I'm going there with him!" Shao said.

"Fine." Ed said, "You do that."

"If Shao's going in the back of the truck, then I'm going there with her!" Ziya said, angered.

"You might as well." Ed said, "Now, let me just see if I can find a way out of the Undercity."

The four of them climbed into the truck, Ed in the driver seat, Leina in the passenger seat, and Shao and Ziya in the back with all of the corpses including Xellano's corpse, which meant far more to Shao than any of the other corpses as she continued to hold his body in her arms. The drive was long as Ed tried to search for a way out of the Undercity, and Shao inevitably fell asleep atop her unlikely yet undeniably soft if not a bit fleshy bed that was a pile of corpses in the back of a monster truck.

15: Bitterness

When Shao woke up, she couldn't see anything. She felt the weight of the many corpses on her, so she assumed she had fallen to the bottom of the pile while she was sleeping. But after she dug her way up to the top of the pile, she still couldn't see anything until she hit her head on the lid of the metal dumpster-like box that she had somehow ended up in, popping it open. She could then see that she was in a city full of grey metal skyscrapers. She climbed out of the box and began to look through it. There was no sign of Ziya, Xellano's corpse, or Shao's jar of tea other than a few pieces of glass from the jar imbedded into the deteriorating flesh of some of the corpses. Shao could see the sky, so she knew she was no longer in the Undercity. She had no idea where in Corpse Country she was, but she wasn't the type to stay in place and wait for answers to come to her, so she decided to search for answers and hopefully, tea. It wasn't long before she saw another person in the city. After turning down an alley, she ran into a man who appeared to be a guard because he had a gun and the modern sort of armor that a cop would wear. The guard pulled out a phone and began to talk on it.

"Boss, I think I see an intruder." The guard said to whoever was on the other end of the phone, "No, she does not fit that description. Well, I've never seen her around here before, and she doesn't look like anyone I remember seeing registered in the residence files last time I checked them. She's hot, though."

The guard hung up the phone, facepalming. Shao had a feeling the reaction was mutual on the other end of the line. She continued to walk forward, making sure to put on a serious expression and keep her eyes focused straight forward and away from the guard to make him think she wasn't even paying attention to him.

"Hey there, cutie!" The guard said, resting his elbow on Shao's shoulder, "How about a date!"

"I don't even know you." Shao said with a bluntness picked up from spending time with Leina, but quickly cracking when she considered her naive list of possibilities of what a date could entail, "Wait, will there be tea!?"

"Umm, sure there will!" The guard said in a way that made it obvious that he was unable to truly confirm if there would be tea.

"There better be because I'm only interested in tea." Shao said.

"I'll tell you what." The guard said, "I'll give you a cup of tea for every time we have sex."

"How about you go blow yourself!" Shao said, "That way, we'll both be satisfied!"

"But, wouldn't it taste better to you?" The guard asked.

"Not better than Jasmine Green Tea!" Shao said.

"Damn..." The guard muttered out loud in panic, "I don't think we have any of that in our local shops..."

Suddenly, the guard exploded into blood.

"Ziya...?" Shao said, ignoring the blood that had splattered onto her body, "Did you do this? Are you there!?"

Sure enough, Ziya rode up to Shao on a black motorcycle shaped like a wolf skeleton.

"There are a lot more guards like him." Ziya said, reaching his hand out to Shao, "They're all out to kill me. I can explain why after we find a place to hide. Come on, let's go!"

Shao climbed onto the seat of the motorcycle, behind Ziya, and the two of them rode onwards down the street.

"Let's find an abandoned warehouse to hide in!" Shao said.

"As if this city would have something so cliche in it!" Ziya said, "Our best bet would be to pick a building and kill everyone in it before they can alert whoever it is they keep calling their boss! We might as well go with this one!"

Ziya brought the motorcycle to a skidding halt in front of the building that he happened to be riding past the entrance of. There was another guard standing in front of the door of the building. As Shao and Ziya approached the entrance, the guard asked for a password. Ziya used his necrokinesis to make the guard explode into blood, and Shao kicked down the door. Together, they entered the building's lobby, a room decorated in a way that could be described as fancy in a modern way. There didn't seem to be anyone else in the room, so they decided it would be safe for them to sit down at a table and talk.

"So, what exactly is going on?" Shao asked.

"I can't say I know much more about it than you do." Ziya said, "But, from what I can gather, we're in a top secret city that only members of the government are allowed in. I believe we're still in Corpse Country. Sure, a lot of the people I've encountered here appear more as if they're of European descent, but all that does is exploit humanity's sick way of determining its hierarchy."

"But, how did we get here?" Shao asked.

"All that I can figure out is that somebody must have stolen the corpses from the back of Ed's truck while we were sleeping, probably to do some sort of experiments on them." Ziya said, "But, because we weren't moving, they mistook us for corpses."

"Do you know how Ed and Leina are doing?" Shao asked.

"No." Ziya said, "And, I don't care enough about them to be willing to use up my last pill of equilibrium to find out. Anyways, I take it you awoke in a dumpster."

"Yeah." Shao said, "You too, huh?"

"Yeah, that seems to be where they ended up putting most of the bodies." Ziya said.

"But, not all of them!" Shao said, "Xellano's body wasn't there!"

"Then, you know what that means." Ziya said.

"What?" Shao asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"They must have found a use for it." Ziya said.

16: Trouble

"A use for Xellano's corpse!?" Shao said, "I have to find his body before they do anything to it!"

"I would have thought you wanted him back alive." Ziya said.

"Alive." Shao said, "Not undead!"

"You seemed to be fine with Leina being undead." Ziya said.

"That was different." Shao said, "I never knew Leina when she was alive, but I knew Xellano. I know that he deserves a peaceful afterlife because life on Earth had been all but kind to him, and you didn't help when you killed him!"

Shao ran out of the building to look for Xellano's corpse. She passed by a few other buildings before stopping in front of one that was labeled as a research center, deciding that it would be a good place to look. She walked up to the door, which turned out to be unlocked, and opened it.

"Hello?" Shao said, "Anybody here?"

Shao looked around the room, taking in her surroundings. This lobby had a very sterile feel with almost all of the furniture and decorations being white. The woman at the reception desk had tightly braided long black hair and dark skin, contrasted by the short white and silver dress that appeared to be her uniform. According to her name tag, her name was Chisom.

"Can I help you?" Chisom asked Shao.

"Hi!" Shao said awkwardly as she walked up to Chisom, "I'm looking for my friend's corpse. He has blonde hair and a metal plate on his forehead."

"Yeah, I don't know what to tell you." Chisom said, "I'm new here. From what I understand, corpses aren't outside of the range of this research center's test subjects, but I couldn't tell you how many corpses there currently are in this building, let alone what they look like. In fact, I don't even think receptionists are supposed to know that sort of information."

"But, he could be in this building?" Shao asked.

"He could." Chisom said, "But, I can't say for sure."

"That's ok!" Shao said, "All that I need with me to help me find my friend and protect his corpse is hope! ...And tea. Is there any tea here?"

"There should be some over there." Chisom said, pointing to a table with snacks and a coffee maker on it.

Shao walked over to the table. The only tea bags she could find on it were the standard Lipton black tea. Deciding it was better than nothing, she took one of the tea bags, put it in one of the supplied cups, changed the setting of the coffee maker to hot water, and placed the cup in the coffee maker to prepare to fill it up.

"What's wrong with this thing!?" Shao yelled angrily, "It's not giving me any tea!"

"It must be out of water." Chisom said, "It's ok. Calm down. It just needs to be refilled."

"And, I take it you don't know where they keep the water here!" Shao said.

"Damn." Chisom said, "You catch on quick."

"Never mind that!" Shao said, "The tea can wait! I'm going to find my friend Xellano!"

Shao ran upstairs, where she came across a hall lined with rooms labeled as different types of labs. She decided to search for one that sounded like it might have something to do with corpses, but before she could find one, she ran into another guard.

"Excuse me!" Shao said naively to the guard, "Which one of these labs is the one where they experiment on corpses?"

"Why should I tell you?" The guard said, "You don't look like you work here, and guests have no business knowing that!"

"Why!?" Shao asked.

"That's just the way things are around here!" The guard said.

"Well then, I guess you're no help!" Shao said, "I wish I didn't have to resort to this, but it looks like I'll have to!"

Shao attempted to roundhouse kick the guard, but he grabbed her by the leg, so she snapped his neck instead. To make sure he was dead, she also straddled his body, which had fallen to the floor, and stabbed him multiple times.

"Impressive." A woman's voice said.

Shao looked up to see the woman, a scientist, walking down the hall. She had very short blonde hair and fair skin, and she was wearing a lab coat, glasses, and a name tag that revealed her name to be Sabrina.

"Thank you?" Shao said, confused.

"You really are unbelievably strong." Sabrina said, "Normally, an intruder like you would be culled on sight, but you have the potential for something more."

"What do you mean?" Shao asked, standing up.

"Come with me." Sabrina said, continuing to walk through the hall and into one of the rooms as Shao followed.

It was a small room with its main feature being an operating table. Shao sat on the operating table because she was tired.

"I believe that you could be of use to the Necroarchy." Sabrina said.

"The Necroarchy?" Shao asked.

"Yes." Sabrina said, "The government of Corpse Country."

"I see." Shao said, "But, how could I be of use?"

"As a weapon." Sabrina said.

"What do you mean...?" Shao said, her speech slowing down as she struggled to process all of the implications of the statement, her eyes widening as she became ultimately distracted by the large syringe that she had just noticed in Sabrina's hand.

"You're willing to work for the Necroarchy, right?" Sabrina asked.

"I guess..." Shao said, "As long as I can still have freedom! ...And tea!"

"So, you like tea." Sabrina said, throwing away her syringe, picking up a new one, and carefully selecting an ingredient to fill it with.

"What are you doing?" Shao asked.

"Selecting a formula that would be better suited to the way that your brain works." Sabrina said, filling her new syringe with a clear liquid.

"What does that do?" Shao asked.

"It reacts with the tannins in tea." Sabrina said, walking up to Shao and jamming the syringe into the center of Shao's forehead.

17: Satisfaction

"Get the fuck away from my girlfriend!" It was Ziya's voice that Shao heard.

It became clear to Shao that she wasn't just hearing things when she saw Sabrina explode into blood and noticed Ziya standing in front of where she had been.

"Ziya!" Shao exclaimed, bulshing cheerfully, "But, how did you find me?"

"I took the pill." Ziya said.

"The equilibrium!?" Shao asked.

"It was worth it for you." Ziya said, "Besides, I knew there would be tons more equilibrium in a classified government city like this. Source knows that's where they always hoard all of the best drugs. In fact, all I had to do was kill practically everybody in this building to pick up several more pills."

"So, you've been through most of this building?" Shao asked, "Did you see Xellano? Or, if you can use ESP now, do you know if he's here?"

"He's not here." Ziya said, "Oh, and by the way, the large spider-like creature that was once Leina is currently eating the corpse that was once Ed. You're welcome."

"But, if you know that much, then do you know what's become of Xellano!?" Shao asked.

"From what I can tell, he's undead now." Ziya said, pulling the syringe out of Shao's forehead and causing blood to trickle down her face, "He still has all of his memories of life as well as all of the cosmic wisdom that he managed to gain during his brief time in the afterlife, but he reacts to them very differently now that his instincts have greatly overpowered his feelings. He's pretty much become boring. Like most of the undead, he's not the type you'd enjoy having a conversation with, so don't waste your time on him! In fact, let me tell you what you really need to worry about..."

"What's that?" Shao asked.

"The Illuminati." Ziya said, "They're the ones in charge of all of the government in the world, and their headquarters are here in this city! This is our chance to bring them down!"

"And, why do we want to bring down the government?" Shao asked.

"Because fuck the system, that's why!" Ziya said, "Not a good enough explanation? Well, tough titties! It's a long story full of painful memories that I'd rather not think about! Now, let's go find the Illuminati's base and take them down!"

"All right!" Shao said, standing up, "As long as we can stop for tea along the way!"

Shao and Ziya left the building and climbed back on to their new badass motorcycle. They passed a few more city blocks on their way to the Illuminati headquarters.

"McDonalds!" Shao exclaimed, pointing at the classic fast food restaurant they were about to pass by, "I'm sure they'll have tea there!"

"You think so?" Ziya asked, bringing the motorcycle to a stop.

"Well, did you happen to loot any money here?" Shao asked.

"Some." Ziya said, "But, all it does is take up unnecessary space. Besides, everything's free when you're good at killing!"

"It's just that I don't think that should always be the answer." Shao said, "I understand that tea isn't free, but if we have enough money to pay for it, then that's what we should do. Or actually, that's what I should do. I actually think I should go into McDonalds alone and order the tea myself because of how much of a public enemy you've become here. No offense, but they probably won't even serve me if they see you standing next to me. I'm sorry. I hope you're ok with waiting outside and giving me your money."

"Here." Ziya said, handing Shao the money, "You can have it. It's not much, but it's not like I would ever want to donate anything to the damn government."

"Thank you for being so understanding!" Shao said, getting off the motorcycle and bowing apologetically.

Shao entered the McDonalds. The line was short, and it wasn't long before Shao was ready to order. The crew member who stood at the cash register, ready to take Shao's order, was of African descent as Shao had noticed most of the lower-class workers in this city were. She had the iconic red and yellow colors of McDonalds weaved into her hair.

"Excuse me!" Shao said, waving to the crew member with the naive politeness of one raised in the magical sheltered city of Yinshi, "I'd like a large unsweetened tea!"

"Ok." The crew member said unenthusiastically as she typed into the cash register.

The price of the tea appeared on the cash register in digital numerals along with the words Large Coke.

"Coke!?" Shao said, "I ordered tea!"

"Not the drug." The crew member said, "The Wax Tadpole or whatever it is that your people call it. All fountain drinks are registered as coke."

"But, they're not..." Shao said, "But, fine!"

Shao paid for the tea, surprised by how something so precious to her could be so affordable. After receiving a large cup, she went over to the fountains to fill it with tea, making sure to press down on the button that was labeled Unsweetened Tea. With the large cup of tea now in her hands, she left the building to return to Ziya and share the good news with him that she finally had tea. She would have preferred a hot green tea, but at least she preferred unsweetened tea.

"Ziya!" Shao squealed, waving the cup of tea in her hand, "I did it! I got the tea!"

"Congratulations." Ziya said, wishing he was able to care about his beloved girlfriend's trivial quest for tea, "Is it good?"

"Let me try it..." Shao said, taking a sip of the tea through the straw, "Those idiots! This is the sweetest tea I've ever tasted! How could they have filled what was supposed to be the unsweetened tea fountain with this!? I can barely even drink it!"

18: Scheme

After sipping the tea, Shao suddenly began to feel faint. As she closed her eyes and passed out into Ziya's arms, she began to have a vision. In her vision, she could see a man with long white hair, gold eyes, and a red military uniform with gold trim. She recognized him as the Chief Pyromancer Of Yinshi, but she noticed an arm covered in black clawed armor strangling his throat. As her vision followed the arm, she noticed that it belonged to a woman with spiky black hair, pale skin, red eyes, and a black suit of armor with a glowing green cross on her chest. She recognized her as the Death Destroyer. The Chief Pyromancer struggled to reach for the sword that was sheathed in his belt when suddenly, without a sound, the heads of both the Chief Pyromancer and the Death Destroyer were cut clean off. Both of their bodies fell to the ground beside each other as blood spurred from their necks. As Shao's vision faded, she could barely make out the man who had assassinated them both. He had his back turned, but she could see that his trench coat and sword were black.

Shao opened her eyes, immediately making direct eye contact with Ziya.

"Are you ok?" Ziya asked.

"I had a vision..." Shao said faintly.

"What did you see?" Ziya asked.

"It was of Yinshi." Shao said, "The Chief Pyromancer and the Death Destroyer were both assassinated!"

"You know, that actually happened." Ziya said.

"Really!?" Shao asked, "Then, that means..."

"You can remote view now." Ziya said, "It's all because of that serum injected into your pineal gland by that doctor I killed."

"Why did you kill her anyways?" Shao asked.

"Because fuck Big Pharma, that's why!" Ziya said, "The same reason I kill all doctors. The only drug dealers that deserve to live are the ones that don't work for corporations!"

"But, you kill those drug dealers, too." Shao said.

"Good point." Ziya said, "Maybe I should start looting more money so that I won't have to kill the good, non-doctor drug dealers."

"Glad I could help?" Shao was unsure of what to say, but being her talkative self, she reflexively said something anyways.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, let's head on to the Illuminati base!" Ziya said.

"First, let me throw away this tea!" Shao said, "It's no good! It's too sweet, and I'm going to keep having visions every time I drink it!"

"No, hang on to it!" Ziya said, "But, only drink it when you need to. Your visions will be helpful! Besides, with your luck, Source knows when you'll get another chance to drink tea!"

"Ok!" Shao said, "Now, let's go look for the Illuminati base!"

Shao and Ziya continued to ride onwards through the city until Ziya brought the motorcycle to a stop.

"That's strange..." Ziya said, "I can feel the presence of the Illuminati base, but I don't see it anywhere around us."

"Look up!" Shao said, pointing upwards.

Ziya looked upwards and saw a gigantic, black, floating pyramid with pulsating green lights.

"So, that's the Illuminati base!" Ziya said, "In that case, we're going to have to get really high!"

"I could drink more of this tea!" Shao said.

"Not that kind of high." Ziya said, "It seems that the only way we'll be able to reach that pyramid is if you can summon a big enough dragon."

"I'll try..." Shao said, focusing on summoning the biggest dragon she knew of, "Please, Fireblood... You have to help us!"

A huge dragon burst out of the ground, growing a golden exoskeleton. Shao and Ziya climbed onto the dragon's head and rode it up until it reached the pyramid. Shao was able to telepathically control the dragon to search for an entrance, eventually finding an indentation in the center of the bottom of the pyramid. Once Shao and Ziya had secured themselves as well as they could within the indentation, the dragon began to recede back into the ground. There were multiple doors placed symmetrically on all sides of the indentation, but out of panic, Ziya quickly opened the door closest to him and Shao so as to not risk falling from such a great height. He was also somewhat worried that she might have kicked the door down if he didn't open it fast enough himself.

Shao and Ziya tumbled awkwardly into the pyramid, immediately shutting the door to protect themselves from the air pressure. They found themselves in a dark hallway lined with green lights. After choosing which direction to explore, they began walking down the hall, which turned out to be very long and labyrinthine.

"There's something off about this hall." Ziya said, "I can feel it."

"What, you mean like how it's not lined with corpses and traps like most of the halls you're probably used to?" Shao asked.

"Nah, sterility is usually as much of a given as traps are an inconvenience for government-only places like this." Ziya said, "Besides, something tells me that whoever works here has plenty of uses for corpses. What I'm saying is that I feel like we're being watched, but I don't see any security cameras. The Illuminati must have some remote viewers of their own!"

"So, they know we're here!" Shao said.

"Yeah." Ziya said, "And, they're probably sending some of their best guards to hunt us down and attack us as we speak."

"We have to find a place to hide!" Shao said.

"That won't be any use!" Ziya said, "No matter where we hide, they'll still know where we are. We just have to fight and kill them. Fortunately, we're really good at killing!"

19: Rule

Shao and Ziya continued to walk down the hall of the Illuminati base, turning corners whenever they needed to.

"Look out!" Ziya said, alerting Shao.

Shao did a backflip, dodging a fireball that was being shot at her from the other end of the segment of the hall that they were currently in.

"It looks like we're up against a pyromancer!" Shao said.

"You would be correct." A man's voice said.

Shao and Ziya could see the man standing across from them. He was wearing a black suit with a grey tie, he had short black hair, one of his eyes was mechanical, the Illuminati symbol was tattooed on his forehead, and he appeared to be of the same ethnicity as Shao.

"There he is!" Shao said.

"Damn it!" Ziya said, "He's Chinese! Doesn't that raise the chance that he'll be attracted to you!?"

"Don't worry!" Shao said, "My sex appeal is weaponized!"

Shao ran up to the enemy pyromancer and roundhouse kicked him.

"You dumb wench!" The pyromancer said, "How did you get to be so strong and fast and sexy!?"

"I was a test tube baby!" Shao said, shattering the pyromancer's skull with an uppercut.

"Nice kill!" Ziya said, running up to Shao, "Now, let's go find some more Illuminati members to assassinate! By the time we get through here, these halls will be lined with corpses!"

Once Shao and Ziya had finally reached the end of the hall, they came across a door. It wasn't locked, so without a need to kick it down, Shao merely opened it, a stealth tactic by her standards. As Shao and Ziya entered the room, they could see that each of the walls was a screen displaying a strange psychedelic spiral pattern that slowly fluctuated in color. The room was also full of people, practically all men as far as Shao could tell, wearing bizarre yet grandiosely formal-looking costumes that concealed their entire bodies and made them appear more like puppets than organic human beings. One of the men was lying down on an altar.

"Do you know what's going on here?" Shao asked Ziya, trying to keep her voice down.

"Some kind of Freakmason ritual." Ziya said, "Although, I don't see a goat."

"Freakmasons?" Shao asked, "Is that really what they're called?"

"No." Ziya said, "But, that's what everybody calls them."

"What did you mean by a goat?" Shao asked.

"These rituals tend to involve live goats." Ziya said, "...That usually don't come out alive."

Shao and Ziya watched as one of the Freakmasons pulled an ornate golden knife out of his belt and used it to cut open the torso of the one on the altar. The red stain of the sacrifical Freakmason's blood spread across his gold regalia.

"Oh, I get it now." Ziya said, "They were going for a human sacrifice this time, if it can be called that. Good thing Freakmasons can't feel pain. I'm not even sure if my necrokinesis would work on them."

Suddenly, one of the screen walls changed from the spiral pattern to show a beautiful woman with long wavy crimson hair, fair skin, cyan eyes, and a white and lavender dress. She had the Illuminati symbol tattooed on her forehead.

"Attention." The woman on the screen said in a commanding voice, "Intruders have been detected in this room. You are to bring them to the Office Of Repurposement, where the tinkerer will decide what to do with their corpses."

"Who's she!?" Shao asked.

"Arlette Tremiere." Ziya said, "She's the boss of the Illuminati!"

"It's always a French bitch!" Shao said.

"What was that!?" Arlette said, glaring in the direction of Shao and Ziya, alerting them that they weren't the only ones with a screen displaying a view of another room.

"My name's Shao Taiyang!" Shao said, "I'm a pyromancer from Yinshi!"

"And, I'm Ziya Alqamar!" Ziya said, "I hope everyone in this room remembers our names because we'll be the ones to bring their boss down! Not that anything true ever gets disclosed in the historical record, but hopefully, that'll all change when we kill you!"

"Yeah!" Shao said, "We're going to stop you from taking over the world!"

"You idiot!" Arlette said, "It looks like the seer was right about you! Your breasts really are bigger than your brain!"

"Did I say something wrong?" Shao asked naively.

"The Illuminati have already taken over the world." Ziya corrected Shao, "The Illuminati control the government. Arlette controls the Illuminati. That's why if we kill her, all of the world's government will come crumbling down with her!"

"Right!" Shao said, "And, you hate the government because... Don't tell me, I've got it... Because of what they did to you! ...What did they do to you?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Ziya said, "There are going to be over 20 more chapters in this story. We have to save some spoilers to keep people interested in it."

Suddenly, the wall with the screen displaying Arlette shattered.

"Did you do that!?" Shao asked, "Was that some kind of narcokinetic power!?"

"Yeah!" Ziya said, "I broke the fourth wall! Arlette can still see what's going on in this room, though, so we better run!"

Shao and Ziya ran into the room behind the shattered wall. This room was twice the size of the ritual room that they had just been in, and it resembled a laboratory. Many of the vials within it appeared to contain insects.

"This must be where they create all of the diseases!" Ziya said.

"Diseases?" Shao asked, "Like what?"

"Ebola, zika, those kinds of inside jobs!" Ziya said, "You know, like Hillary Clinton's pneumonia!"

"So, it's all an Illuminati conspiracy!" Shao said.

"You bet it is!" Ziya said, "Now, let's get out of here before we catch something!"

The exit was in the opposite corner of the room from where Shao and Ziya were standing. But as they began to run towards it, they heard something that sounded like a chainsaw.

20: Reception

"Just follow me!" Ziya said, continuing to run, "I know where to go!"

Shao followed Ziya out of the room and into a short hall. From there, the two of them turned at a corner to see that it the hall ended in a metal door, which Shao kicked down, revealing a small industrial-looking room.

"Where are we going?" Shao asked.

"To the top floor of the Illuminati Pyramid!" Ziya said, "That's where Arlette is! However, it' going to take a while. Although each floor will be smaller than the one before it, the bottom floor that we're on now is easily the size of an average city and it only contains one staircase. Luckily, I'm able to remote view the layout of the pyramid!"

"Let's go!" Shao said, struggling to conceal her sense of fear upon hearing whatever was making the saw sound catching up to them.

Shao kicked down the room's other door, this time revealing a larger room made of the same grey metal as the previous small room except with more blood staining it. The first thing she noticed was a large blood-stained guillotine. There were a few lacerated corpses scattered around the room, but not near as many as the blood indicated, for most of the people killed in this room had since been repurposed.

"Shit!" Ziya said, "This must be the Murder Room! This is where they execute people!"

"Well, there's no time to stare in awe at it!" Shao said, "If you haven't noticed, we're being chased!"

"Oh, that..." Ziya said, trying to channel information about whoever seemed to be stalking him and Shao, "Yeah, I don't like what the voices are telling me, but I'm just going to leave it at that. Now, the next hall's a lot less straightforward and more complicated, but everything will be ok if you follow me!"

Shao followed Ziya into the next hall, making sure to turn in the same directions as him, but it was only a matter of time before he had gotten so far ahead of her that she became lost.

"Ziya, where are you!?" Shao called out, turning around to see someone with about the same height and build as Ziya, unable to make out his features in the dimly lit hall, "Is that you, Ziya...?"

"No." A dry, scratcy voice said, "But finally, I have found you."

"You're not Ziya!" Shao yelled.

Shao ran away, ending back up in the Murder Room, the ultimate disappointing proof that she was lost. All she could do was put her faith in Ziya's psychic abilities and wait for him to find her. But, the next person to enter the room wasn't Ziya. It was the boy she ran into in the hallway who she felt ashamed to have ever mistaken for Ziya now that she could see him in a clearer lighting. He was wearing a black leather outfit with a long sleeveless jacket with a ribcage pattern on the inside of it, boots similar to her own but with even longer spikes, and black sunglasses with eyelash-like spikes around the edges. He had short blonde hair and pale skin, his mouth had decayed into a perpetual smile, and his right hand had been replaced with a circular saw that was thickly stained with fresh red blood.

Shao knew she wouldn't be able to summon a dragon in the Illuminati Pyramid because it was floating above the ground. All she could do was hope to defeat the saw-armed zombie in a hand-to-hand fight, when suddenly, Ziya rushed into the murder room.

"Die, motherfucker!" Ziya said, pointing his assault rifle at the zombie.

"I already did." The zombie said emotionlessly, turning to face Ziya.

"Damn it, I'm out of ammo!" Ziya said, stamping his foot, "Oh well, I'm still going to bring you down for good if it's the last thing I do!"

Ziya ran towards the zombie, hitting him in the head with his gun. The zombie's sunglasses were knocked off, revealing his silver eyes.

"Wait, I know those eyes!" Shao said, "Xellano!? Is it really you!?"

"I never asked to be named that." The zombie said, putting his sunglasses back on and approaching Shao, "Call me Xero."

"You knew it was him, didn't you, Ziya!?" Shao asked.

"Why else would I be so bent on killing him!?" Ziya asked.

"You kill random people all the time!" Shao said.

"Ok, you got me there." Ziya said.

"Don't worry." Shao said, "That's why I feel safe around you!"

"Tell me, Shao." Xero growled, "Shouldn't you be wondering why the Brotherhood still haven't caught up with you?"

Xero held his saw hand out towards Shao, spinning his blade and causing flecks of blood to fly off of it and splatter onto her face.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Shao said.

"The damn freakmasons!" Ziya said.

"I killed them all for you." Xero said.

"Why!?" Shao said, "It's not like I love you or anything!"

"Yes you do." Xero said, "During the time that I spent in the afterlife before being reanimated, I learned the truth from the Akashic Record. You love me. You just won't admit it because you love Ziya more, and you would have loved me more if you had met me first."

"No!" Shao said, "I love Ziya because he respects me as a warrior and as a friend! No matter how much I objectify myself, he still loves me for my personality!"

"So do I." Xero said.

"Thanks, Shao..." Ziya said, not knowing how to react and struggling not to cry, "I've never heard someone say they love me before..."

"Neither have I." Xero said.

"Well, I might have loved you when you were a living human being, but now I don't because you're..." Shao struggled to think of something she didn't like about Xero that wasn't also true of Ziya, "You know what? Never mind! Let's keep looking for the stairs to the second floor!"

"I like that idea!" Ziya said, knowing that the best option would be to run from an undead enemy like Xero who couldn't be affected by necrokinesis.

Once again, Ziya ran out of the Murder Room, and Shao made sure to follow close behind him.

21: Yearning

Ziya held on to Shao's arm as he led her through the halls of the Illuminati Pyramid.

"You still love him, don't you!?" Ziya asked Shao.

"Of course not!" Shao said, hoping Ziya would interpret her blushing as embarrassment at the thought of her loving Xero, "What gave you that idea!?"

"I'm psychic." Ziya said, "Look, Shao, he's not the same person he used to be! It may seem to you like he could potentially still have feelings, but at best, he only has memories of feelings!"

"Well, even if I still love him some, I don't love him as much as I used to, and I never loved him as much as I love you!" Shao said, struggling to hold back her tears at the notion of Xero still having memories of feelings.

At the end of the hall, Shao and Ziya reached a metal door, which Shao kicked down. They entered a dimly lit steel room.

"It sure is cold in here!" Shao said.

"Yeah, like a morgue!" Ziya said, "This must be where they keep some of the corpses! But, there's now time to dawdle! We have to keep running or Xero will catch up with us!"

Ziya opened the other door and exited the room with Shao following behind him. Together, they ran through the next hall, which wasn't exactly a straight tunnel but didn't branch off either. 15 corridors later, Ziya stopped and turned around.

"What's wrong?" Shao asked.

"Something's coming." Ziya said, "Something that I won't be able to fight without any bullets."

"So, something undead..." Shao said, struggling not to think of Xero and ultimately failing, "Is it Xero!?"

"Nah." Ziya said, "Just some of those corpses from that cold storage room. He's the one who reanimated them, though. Apparently, he can do that."

"So, he's a necromancer..." Shao said.

Shao and Ziya could see the several zombies that Xero had reanimated approaching them. Shao threw a knife into one zombie's eye before running towards the zombies, pulling the knife back out, slitting their throats, and cutting their heads off.

"It feels so unusual to be the one protecting you this time..." Shao said, "But, I guess it's a sign that I really do love you."

"Don't feel bad about it." Ziya said, "You're strong, and you should be proud of that. This is a situation where the enemy, Xero, wants me dead and you alive. And since he's undead and I'm out of ammo, you're the only one who can fight him."

Shao didn't like it when Ziya called Xero the enemy. It just sounded wrong to her.

"Isn't there some way to redeem him?" Shao asked, trying not to sound too whiny.

"No!" Ziya said, losing his temper, "Now do you like me better or not!?"

"Well, it is true that I like you better..." Shao said.

"Great!" Ziya said, raising his assault rifle in the air despite it being out of ammo, "Now, let's kill the Illuminati!"

Shao and Ziya continued to run down the corridors of the hall.

"The stairs to the second floor are close!" Ziya said, "But, they're protected by two guards. These guards, while not undead, are are biobots like the Freakmasons. That means they have their souls inactivated by EMT."

"So, they're narcs, too!?" Shao asked.

"No!" Ziya said, "Well, one of them's a narcopath, but that's besides the point! I didn't say DMT. I said EMT, electronic mind control technology!"

"So, they're being controlled by Arlette!" Shao said.

"That's how Arlette would prefer it." Ziya said, "But, even the boss of the Illuminati can only control so many people at once. The truth is that most Illuminati mind slaves, including the guards we're about to run into are controlled by some of her assistants who are even smarter and more strategic than her, although that's not saying much in my opinion! Still, these bastards will shoot on sight, and they'll be coming up the next corner we turn, so be prepared to dodge some bullets!"

"So, they have guns!" Shao said, "You stay behind! I have a plan!"

Shao turned the corner, immediately ducking to dodge the guards' bullets. As she rolled sideways towards the guards, she could see what they looked like. They were both men with short black hair. One had light skin and purple eyes, and the other had dark skin and yellow eyes, but they were both wearing black uniforms with gold Illuminati symbols on them and they both had the Illuminati symbol tattooed on their foreheads. They were standing right in front of the stairs to the second floor. Shao snuck up behind one of the guards, snapped his neck, took his gun, and used it to blow the other guard's head off. She ran back to Ziya with both of the guards' guns.

"I didn't know how to tell which one had more ammo, so I brought you both!" Shao said.

"That's ok." Ziya said, removing the ammo from both guns and adding it to his own, "I'll take it all!"

"I'm sorry I don't really understand that much about guns." Shao said, feeling ashamed.

"That's ok." Ziya said, "It's the thought that counts."

"At least the coast is clear now." Shao said, "Let's go up the stairs!"

Shao and Ziya climbed up the stairs and ended up in another concrete hall, this one lined with turquoise lights.

"All right!" Ziya said, "We've made it to the second floor!"

"How many floors does this pyramid have anyways?" Shao asked.

"Nine altogether." Ziya said, "But naturally, due to the shape of the pyramid, each one's smaller than the one before it."

"Good!" Shao said, "It'll take us less time to get to the the next floor than it did to get to this one!"

"Not necessarily." Ziya said, feeling somewhat reluctant to disappoint Shao.

"What do you mean?" Shao asked.

"Well, compared to the first floor, this one's a lot more amazeing to say the least." Ziya said, "In order to reach the stairs to the third floor, we're going to have to circle around the entire pyramid. And although I can remote view the layout, its migraine-inducing intricacy kind of makes me not want to."