"Hold…"
Max and his five companions held their breath, waiting. When most of the steam dissipated, the mechanical sound of something rising to the top echoed through the throne room.
"What the…"
From the opened dais came something that looked like a large, rugged, cylindrical casket, with a flat base. The top of the casket was made of glass and heavily dusted.
From the dust-covered glass covering came a luminous green glow, subtle but present. Max slightly lowered his rifle and looked at his colleagues, noticing their frightened expressions.
"That's some creepy shit," Kenneth murmured as a shudder ran down his spine. "What do we do, boss?"
Max looked back at the still casket and swallowed hard, "What else is there to do? We came all this way, right? We might as well see it through to the end."
"Yeah… You guys go ahead." Max turned to Jessica, noticing her pale expression. The girl looked at him and added, "I just realised I don't do well with tombs and stuff."
"Se-seriously?" To the side, Julius muttered nervously. "You're just going to back out now?"
"Well, I'm not stopping you guys, am I?" Jessica shrugged. "Look, we came here to try our luck, and we found something good. Why go beyond that and bother with whatever that thing is?"
Max looked at the casket and had to agree. "But it might be empty for all we know…"
"Yeah, there's no need to scare ourselves like that." Kenneth chipped in, laughing nervously. He turned to look at Max, who silently cursed his teammates for being so useless.
'Damn it! Am I even the leader here?!'
Taking a deep breath to settle his anxious nerves, Max readied his rifle and slowly closed in on the casket. His colleagues — as frightened as they were — need not be told to be ready.
They already had their rifles pointed at the casket, spreading out and hiding behind the pillars. With slightly trembling hands and a sweat-covered back, Max slowly closed in on the dais.
He could barely hear anything beyond the pounding of his heart in his ears. Dealing with anything related to death was extremely tricky. One wrong move and it would be game over.
When he arrived at the base of the dais, Max moved to the other side of the dais for a better look at the massive casket, narrowing his eyes as he studied its structure. And while it looked like a casket, it was too large and too sophisticated to be one.
'More like a metallic box for sleeping.' Max thought grimly, his thoughts racing on various possibilities. 'God, I hope it's empty.'
Reaching the end of the dais, Max climbed the steps, sticking close to the wall. The dais had been partially closed, leaving the floor directly beneath the metallic box open. There was almost no chance of falling into it.
Max looked at his colleagues, realising they had closed in at some point, but still kept a reasonably safe distance from the dais, unlike him. Releasing the breath he was holding in, Max slowly closed in on the metallic box.
When he got close to the partially opened floor, he glanced down and swallowed. His eyes widened slightly, impressed at what he saw. Lined at the corners of the metallic shaft were ambient lights of the same hue as the one from the metallic box.
The shaft had nothing inside, and while deep, it was simply the space that housed the metallic box. Letting out another breath, Max sifted his gaze to the dust-covered box. He lowered his rifle and reached out for the pistol strapped to his right thigh.
His heart was still racing, his nerves all over the place. Glancing at his colleagues for some comfort, Max reached out with his left hand. He realised just how shaken he was when he saw his trembling hand.
Suddenly feeling ashamed of his frightened state, Max swiftly swiped his hand over the glass cover in one go, wiping away a chunk of the inch-thick dust. Almost immediately, he jumped back, his heart racing frantically.
His forehead was beaded with sweat, and his chest rose and fell, as though he had just run a marathon. However, he soon calmed down when his mind caught up with what he saw.
"W-What is it?"
"There's someone inside. Probably dead." Max replied with a sigh. Glancing at his colleagues, he added, "It looks to be some kind of healing capsule left here ages ago."
If he had to guess from where they were, then it was the capsule of some past king or prince. After getting most of his nerves back in control, Max turned to the capsule once again, this time wanting to take a better look.
Before long, his colleagues had approached the dais as well. Jessica was the only one hesitant to approach, despite Max's words. Though she later joined them to observe. Carefully, Max cleaned off the remaining dust around the figure's upper body, fully exposing the body.
The body was inside a greenish fluid, wearing a respiratory mask. Floating in the fluid with the body were pieces of metal that resembled broken armour. They looked rugged and modern, something that piqued Max's curiosity.
"Wow… Must have been some really good-looking king or something."
James commented from the other side of the capsule, Max and the others silently agreeing. The body had its eyes closed, and its hair seemed to float in the healing fluid or whatever it was.
"And check out those muscles and flawless skin," Kenneth added with a smirk, glancing at the others, specifically the girls. "You don't see something like this every day."
"Eww… What's going on in that head of yours?" Sophia sneered. "Do you have a thing for ancient dead corpses or something?"
"What?!" Kenneth's face turned red in an instant. "How dare you? I like girls, okay! Preferably those alive, thank you very much."
Sophia, on the other hand, looked away and snorted.
Max couldn't help but chuckle, looking back at the sleeping body. Although Kenneth sounded weird, he was right. He had never seen anyone with such flawless skin and muscles, as if he were sculpted by the gods or something.
"I wonder what his history is," Max muttered softly.
"So do we open it or what?" James suddenly proposed, catching everyone off guard. Max was taken aback, mortified that James could say something like that.
"How could you say that?" Max frowned, displeased. "We're already invading this person's resting place and probably stealing his stuff. Now you want us to open his capsule?"
James raised his hands in surrender, "Look, I know what I just said was uncalled for, but have you thought that maybe that gree—shit!" James jumped back so fast that he crashed into the chests lying at the base of the dais.
Max felt his heart drop to the pit of his stomach, cold dread rushing down his spine. He had made the mistake of following James' gaze, and what he saw nearly scared his soul out of his body.
The body had opened its fucking eyes!