<~> Chapter 322The barrier around the ritual finally shattered into a million shards, but Felketh just waved away all of our magic as if none of it existed. Suddenly, it felt as if all of my mana was forcibly pulled from my body and the remains of my [Light Siphon] spell was destroyed. I stumbled from the sudden ck of mana. It wasn't enough to cause mana exhaustion, but only barely. Another barrier came to life around him, this one with the same sickening purple color the ritual had been emitting. With a second wave of his arm, a shockwave traveled through the area and knocked all of us onto our backs except for the dogkin woman and the st two surviving cultists she had been protecting.

  "Thank you for your help with the ritual, my fallen champion, Lilith. I will leave you and your friends alive as a mercy, since you have been so kind as to deliver yourselves to my new favorite worshiper and champion. She wouldn't have been able to summon my avatar without you." The man turned to the adoring golden-haired dogkin and caressed her face. She stared up at the creature with an enthralled adoration. There was a fsh of light as the woman's accumuted wounds healed and her body began to overflow with mana. Even the countless scars that covered her arms from her time as a sve faded away, leaving her looking pristine.

  She closed her eyes and let out a shuddering breath. "Thank you, my god."

  Felketh looked down at her with a loving gaze that looked at odds with the rest of his uncanny features. "You are quite welcome, my champion. We are finished with this pce, let us leave."

  He waved another arm and a dark purple portal materialized in front of him. He turned and gnced at me one st time before winking and stepping through the portal, closely followed by his three worshipers. Then, as if it had never been there, the portal snapped shut, the barrier colpsed, and everything went silent.

  I closed my eyes and took a few calming breaths before sitting up. I looked around. All of us had somehow managed to get through this experience alive. A literal god was summoned in front of us and left us alive for helping him escape. I ran a hand over my eyes. All of this went so wrong. Apparently, I was what the cultists had needed this entire time. Had all of these dungeons been bait? Something to lure me in so that my blood could be used to summon Felketh? That didn't entirely expin everything that the cultists had done, but it seems this had been one of their ultimate goals.

  "Lilith. It looks like they're still alive," Torien said, pointing.

  Standing up, I walked over to her. "What do you mean?"

  "These people here... I think I recognize them," Torien replied.

  I came over and looked at the battered and bruised bodies held in pce by metal wire. Each of them had a weapon drawn, pointing at where the crystal had been before it was used to power the ritual. From their loose gear, they looked like they had lost weight, maybe they hadn't eaten in days. All four of them were breathing slowly, but none of them were conscious.

  When I peered closer at each of their faces, I finally recognized them. "Oh shit, these are the adventurers that were in charge of guarding the midnight castle dungeon. Nora, Yefen, Aquil, and Samuel!" It had been weeks since I had seen any of them, and they looked very different now.

  Nora was one of the adventurers who escorted us back to the dungeon and protected us from the Tamin priests. I had met her the first time I met Tarklin. She was a muscur human woman, though she looked really rough right now. She still had her crossed swords and daggers that covered her body, but one sword was outstretched in front of her, supported with the rest of her body by the metal wire holding her up.

  Yefen had been the bear demi-beastfolk that we met in the camp they set up around the dungeon. His heavy mace drooped close to the ground, and his armor, made from leather and some kind of insect carapace, was cracked and torn. The man was still huge despite the obvious weight he had lost.

  I didn't know Aquil and Samuel well. Aquil had been the quartermaster/cook, and Samuel had been the smith of their camp back then. They were a human and a dwarf, respectively. I had suspected all of them were more than mere borers when I met them, but I guess this expins what Raksha'va meant when she said this group wasn't entirely combat-focused. They had to have been pretty powerful though, otherwise they wouldn't have been the ones to go out with Brominn, her second in command.

  While I was examining them, the others had come over to help, but none of us were doing particurly well on resources. Whatever Felketh had done, it robbed all of us of our mana. Our healers had already hit the point of toxicity with the mana potions, so the best we could do was feed them some of Nelly's milk. It still felt odd to give unconscious people potions, but this was unsurprisingly a well-practiced skill for adventurers in this world. Before we woke them, I decided to shift back into my normal form. I had to use what little mana I had left to activate [Arms of Light] to give me a thin outfit to wear since Mimi was still out like a light. She hadn't woken again since the dungeon crystal was destroyed.

  Silva and I worked on cutting them down while Torien and Nelly worked on feeding them Nelly's milk one at a time. Kal'daeryn had moved Mimi nearby so she could rest closer to us, but we had no idea when she would wake up. Like the st time the cultists had attacked the dungeon, she had been affected by it, but this time had seemingly been much worse. None of us had any idea how long she would be out. She didn't usually sleep at all, so seeing her actually unconscious, rather than just still, felt odd. She had passed out in her humanoid form, but I didn't know if that was good or bad. A thought tickled in the back of my head, saying that maybe Felketh stole all of her stored mana as well, but she didn't look any different.

  I dug through the pouch on my side and pulled out a mana potion vial. It was the only one I still had. Mimi had been holding onto the rest of them. Maybe she needed mana and that was why she was unconscious? It was worth a shot. No one else would need this mana potion right away. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I hesitated and held onto this mana potion when she might really need it.

  "Morrigan, come here, please."

  Morrigan dropped what she was doing and came over to me and Mimi. "What's wrong. Did something happen?"

  I shook my head. "No, she's still unconscious, but I thought... Would this help her?" I held out the mana potion.

  Morrigan pursed her lips. "None of us really know how her powers and unique biology works. It could help her, or it might not do anything. I have no idea." She leaned forward and put her hand on Mimi's forehead while closing her eyes. "I can still feel mana coursing through her, so I don't think she's completely out. But if whatever he did to steal all of our mana affected Mimi, I don't know what it would do to her."

  "Should we try it?" I asked.

  She hesitated but nodded after a moment. "Yeah, I think we should try it. None of the rest of us can use them right now. My mana pool is... rather good now, but I can get by fine without it, and the others are still sick from the other mana potions."

  "Can you do it? You're probably better at it," I said while handing over the mana potion.

  "Of course," she said with a nod. I helped lift Mimi's heavy head and rested it on Morrigan's p. Morrigan opened the stopper before slowly pouring the liquid into Mimi's mouth while gently rubbing her neck to encourage the mimic to swallow.

  Once the potion was empty, Mimi's eyes blinked open. She squinted and looked around. "Is this what a headache feels like?" she asked.

  I couldn't help but ugh in relief when Mimi sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Mimi, I'm gd you're okay. Something... stole all of our mana, is yours okay?"

  Mimi's eyebrows rose, and her eyes looked gssy for a moment before she shook her head. "No, I didn't lose anything from my mana stores. Not any more than usual, anyway. I just got knocked out when the dungeon started to wail. It's... it's dead now, isn't it?" She turned her head to the space where the dormant ritual and complete ck of a crystal was.

  "It looks like it," I replied.

  Sudden hacking and sputtering came from Yefen as he sat up and coughed up the milk Nelly had been feeding him. He looked around wildly in confusion before meeting my gaze. It was only then that he calmed down a little. "You're... Lilith, right? What happened?" He looked around at everyone else as he rubbed his head. "Did you rescue us from those cultists?"

  I nodded and came over to him. "Yes, the cultists... left you here after they finished up what they were doing."

  "The dungeon! It's a dem—" His voice cut off when he stared at the pce where the crystal had been. "It's... gone. Did you stop them?"

  I sighed and dug through my bag. "No, unfortunately. They got what they came here for."

  He turned back to me with a frightened look. "What... did they come here for?"

  Looking at him, I wondered how much I should say. Theoretically, speaking his name could call him back here, or at least let him listen in. But if we were just talking about what had happened, he probably wouldn't be any more interested in us than he had been just a moment ago. After a longer pause than I meant to take, I decided to answer truthfully, "They summoned an avatar of Felketh."

  Yefen sharply inhaled and his eyes went wide. "That does not bode well for this world."

  I shook my head. "No, it doesn't."

  "What now?" He asked, turning toward his party. My friends were still working on feeding the others enough of Nelly's milk to wake them as well.

  "For now, you four need to eat. And we need to rest. None of us will be able to make it back to Traehall until we recover enough mana. The dungeon is dead, and I doubt there are many demons left here. Once we have enough mana, we'll need to fly back down to the exit," I said as I started to pull out the rations I still kept for appearances.

  The man's eyebrow rose. "Fly to the exit? What about the gates?"

  "So there were more gates..." Morrigan said with a nod.

  Yefen's eyes shifted to Morrigan before briefly dipping to her bare neck, where her sve colr once was. "Your sve colr is gone."

  Morrigan smiled and caressed her bare neck. "Yes... The king is dead, so all pantharians have gone free."

  The huge man's eyebrows furrowed. "The king is dead?... That will come with its own share of problems... Ah! But I'm happy for you all the same. You are still traveling with Miss Lilith here, then?"

  Morrigan's smile widened when she looked over at me. "Yes... My sister and I are her... friends now, rather than her servants."

  "Lovers, actually. At least in her case," I said while putting my hand on her shoulder.

  Morrigan blushed and looked down at her feet. "Yes... Lovers too."

  Yefen ughed heartily for someone who looked half-starved to death. "Not surprising those Tamin bastards didn't like you."

  I chuckled wryly as the others began to wake up. Nora's eyes looked wild for a moment, and she looked around dangerously before settling on me and Yefen. Her demeanor visibly rexed and she let out a breath.

  Yefen smiled at Nora. "I told you someone would come. You owe me a drink, Nora."

  Nora squinted her eyes shut for a moment before nodding. "I do."

  Yefen ughed again before turning to the little campfire pan I was setting up. So what have you got to eat? All of us are starving. I would say we haven't eaten for days, but I have no idea how long it's actually been. Oh, and can I have more of that milk? It was the best tasting milk I've ever had!"

  From behind him, Nelly looked over at the back of his head and blushed heavily. I already knew we were running low on bottled milk, but perhaps Nelly could fill more since we were taking a break...

  For the next couple bells, all of us talked and recuperated around a small campfire while the people we saved ate their fill of our prepared rations. I spent some time collecting the remains of the sacrificed people that were used to power this profane ritual, four identical human women, and copied down what I could of the damaged ritual circle before removing any traces of it in the stone. I expected the trek back to Traehall to be easier than the trek in, but who knows what was happening outside. Who knows what Felketh was doing?

  Saine

  Hello! A little bit of a breather before things heat up outside the dungeon! These are characters that originally appeared pretty early on, so I wouldn't be surprised if you don't remember them. I had originally intended for the characters to return to Traehall much sooner, but things kind of expanded a lot as soon as they left haha. Yefen was a character I enjoyed writing a lot at the time, so it's nice to bring him back a little. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thanks for reading and happy new year!

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