As much as I hated it, this hadn’t been the first time I’d been swallowed by a creature several sizes larger than me. It was both a pro and a con from being so small. Because, disgusting as it was, it could be a valid tactic.

  Like when a powerful Dragon with high level spells and the ability to crush you in a single stomp was on a rampage. After Ferrisdae’s first Shooting Star failed to take off one of its wings, this had come onto the table as an option. That was also ignoring the fact that it could have some form of movement magic, such as Teleport or, more likely in this case, Shadow Jump.

  I steeled myself as the beast’s throat contracted around me, pushing me towards its stomach. It was wet and the pressure was supremely uncomfortable. This was about when I’d strike, since I still had the crystalline sword that Himia was attached to, but she decided to speak the moment I put a hand on its hilt.

  “Inspector, I am sensing a powerful divine presence inside the Shadow Dragon,” she stated without appearing. Because of course she wasn’t going to do that here. I envied her.

  My hand gripped the sword, but I didn’t dare open my mouth to respond. There was no way I was going to risk it. The wind was almost knocked out of me as I was squeezed from both ends, and I barely managed to keep my breath.

  I hated that Himia had waited so long to say it, but it was possible she hadn’t sensed it before. A Dragon as large and powerful as this could easily hide a divine item, even one like Luculus Rex. Especially if it continuously ate the light I assumed it put off as the treasure of the sun god.

  That would explain its size, too. This monster was much too large for its age if we considered other Dragon species. Then again, it could be normal and we just didn’t know because they were extinct on the Central Continent thanks to Segrech’s efforts. I wasn’t about to ask.

  But I knew I was playing devil’s advocate against myself because I would take any distraction in order to not think about what was currently happening to me. Everything was made worse due to the fact that I could see everything in vivid detail due to the Darklight Goggles. I certainly wasn’t going to take them off, though.

  Then I finally finished going down the Dragon’s long neck and ended in its stomach. At least I wasn’t being crushed anymore, though I was almost swimming. My feet touched the bottom of the beast’s undulating stomach as I returned my shield to buckler form.

  Acid ate away at me and my clothes, but much slower than it should have. The Resist Energy spell I had cast before being swallowed was a literal godsend. The fact that I didn’t have to choose which type until I used it made it all the better.

  A cacophony of sounds surrounded me. Not only did I have to hear the tides of the monster’s stomach, but a persistent heartbeat from above was loud enough to shake the bones in my body. The moist squelching noise of everything else going on inside the Shadow Dragon added to the general discomfort of my situation.

  The monster moved, causing its stomach acid to push me further in. Retrieving the crystalline sword from my belt, I stabbed it upwards into the lining in order to keep myself still. Himia had altered it so it wouldn’t cut through the loop I was using to hold it, and I was glad she understood that I wanted to use it to hurt things and transformed it back to its original shape.

  While I had thought its heartbeat was loud, I was very quickly shown that it could get worse. The Dragon’s roar shook the lake of acid with me in it, and its movements became erratic. I managed to stay planted in place despite the contents of its stomach battering me from all sides.

  I almost would have preferred being blinded, at least for the moment; I didn’t need to see what was going on in here. Cheroske was definitely going to be getting thanks for improving my divine health once I left this cesspool of carnage.

  But that was secondary to what I needed to do now. “Where hammer?” I asked swiftly, risking some of the air from my lungs when there was no chance of getting splashed in the face with acid. I was right, but opening my mouth made me gag as I tasted the smell of the Dragon’s stomach.

  “Forward five paces, then fifty degrees to the left. It is completely submerged,” Himia answered in her usual, unhurried tone.

  I was going to need to talk to her about her sense of urgency if we were going to keep working together.

  Retrieving my sword from the lining of the Shadow Dragon’s stomach, I jumped forward through the acid and stabbed upwards again when the tide turned against me. I nearly slipped, going headfirst into the drink, but I held on as tenaciously as my namesake.

  Once my environment was relatively calm again, I started moving. At this point I was thoroughly soaked, and I was glad that I could heal myself without any verbal components. I did so while moving forward, regrowing the layer of skin the acid had taken from me despite my protection. At five paces, I turned to the left before continuing.

  All at once, the Shadow Dragon shifted and a whole wave of acid came down on me. Inwardly cursing, I plunged the crystalline sword into the monster’s stomach as deep as I could and held on tight. It roared again, and I could feel the heaving up and down motions it was performing. The damn thing was trying to fly away, likely to try and wait for me to die in peace.

  Just as I thought I had a bearing on what was going to happen, the body hitched to one side and we started falling. The sword ripped through even more of the Dragon’s stomach lining until it came to a stop. I was dunked face first into the acid, my weapon ripping free, as the beast hit the ground.

  If I had to guess, one of its wings had finally been cut off. No mean feat, but it meant the monster would resort to other measures.

  As quickly as I could, I stabbed the crystalline sword back into its stomach lining. Teleportation or some other movement spell would be its next move if it wanted to escape outside. If I could ruin its concentration, then it would be stuck in the cavern.

  “Hammer?” I asked again, and this time I did have to take a breath. I did everything I could to ignore the quality of the air rushing into my lungs even as I gagged again.

  “Three pa… right, under… cid,” Himia answered.

  The Shadow Dragon’s heart was beating rapidly now as it became more agitated, or perhaps even panicked. I barely heard her words over the noise, but I understood enough to know what she meant.

  I didn’t dare remove the crystalline sword from the monster’s stomach, instead pushing it forward as I waded through the acidic marsh. The remains of a large animal carcass rammed into me from the side and almost threw me off course. I grimaced, trying not to retch.

  Three paces to the right was much harder to manage when the Shadow Dragon was moving so much. It was a lot more active now, which I had to assume was because of Dalsarel joining the fight. Maybe Cojisto. Even though he’d be blind, I wasn’t sure if I trusted him not to come and fight the creature himself. Hoped he wouldn’t, but that could have easily been a pipe dream.

  My foot caught on something, and I nearly tripped into the acid. Kicking it, I realized that it was exactly what I’ve been looking for. I tried to lift it with my foot, but it was stuck tight no matter how much effort I put into it. I wasn’t sure if it was stuck inside a hole of its own making like an ulcer or a gastric pit, but I didn’t have the leverage needed to lift it.

  Grimacing, I knew what I had to do. There really wasn’t any reason to be squeamish about it; I was already covered in horrible, unspeakable things. What was a little more?

  I wasted no more time and plunged directly into the acidic lake. The crystalline sword kept me in place as the liquid shifted around me, and I grabbed the hammer’s haft with my free hand. The moment I did, I pulled.

  The effort strained me, and I had to start pushing with my legs. No matter how much I tried, the damn thing wouldn’t move. Risking it, I pulled the magical crystal sword free and started thrusting it at the hammer’s head. It seemed like it was buried deep in whatever it had gotten caught in.

  My divine core started to warm, and I took it as a sign that I was going in the right direction. Pulling the sword to my chest, I released some air as I charged it with my power. Breathing was important for properly pulling off a martial art because it helped cycle energy throughout the body, allowing you to direct it to where it needed to go whether that was a weapon, shield, or something else.

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  Giving up a bit of air to get this nightmare over with sooner was well worth it. The crystalline sword greedily ate the energy I was freely giving it, proving to be a surprisingly wonderful medium. It continued to pull beyond what it needed, but I cut it off as I thrust the weapon forward.

  My blade scraped against Luculus Rex’s head before striking the stomach again, and this time I could hear the Shadow Dragon’s roar despite being submerged. An attack that should have left a small hole thanks to the size of the weapon instead widened at the point of impact, dealing damage in a wide cone beyond the point of impact. This was powerful enough to drill a hole through most monsters, but I couldn’t see the results.

  Then, I blinked as light flooded my vision. I was no longer surrounded by acid, deep in the pit of a Dragon’s stomach. Instead, I was inside a stone building with no roof and a myriad of pillars. The sun, high in the sky, beat down on me with an unrelenting heat before transitioning to something only uncomfortably warm. Blessedly, the air was sweet and carried the smell of pine.

  I’d take that over my current circumstances any day.

  “You scratched my divine treasure,” said a deep, rumbling voice that seemed to come from the very environment itself. It was a clear accusation.

  I could see who was talking, though, and I had mixed feelings about it. Sitting on a tall throne not twenty feet in front of me was the very picture of Segrech himself, as I knew him from his holy texts. The god was made of pure alabaster aside from his face, which put out a light so powerful that it brightened the area around me despite the sun high above. His clothes were spun of gold, showing off half of his chest.

  There was no way to look directly at his face without risking my vision, even here in the god’s domain, so I looked down at the weapon in my hand.

  Luculus Rex, the Maul of the Luminescent King, was a beauty of a hammer. It, like the one who crafted it, was made of pristine alabaster from its head to its haft. Golden brackets framed its edges with some raised spikes to increase its versatility. The bright light that blinded me previously didn’t come from the hammer itself, but what was inside of it.

  The head had five sections that looked to be glass on all sides except for where it connected to the shaft. Inside was its own miniature sun, complete with flares that reached out to touch the windows containing it. The core boiled and popped soundlessly inside of its prison, as if angered. Whether it was because I didn’t follow the right god or because I scratched it remained to be seen.

  Looking closely, I could see the scratch in question. I held back a grimace as I saw that it was almost five inches long and a quarter-inch deep. Nothing that couldn't be repaired if it were a normal weapon, but I was dealing with an overly proud god who was not known to be particularly merciful when he thought he had been slighted.

  I lowered my head, showing proper decorum to a god that was not my own. “My—”

  “My paladin has done nothing wrong,” came a familiar voice from behind me.

  Immediately, I lowered myself down onto one knee in proper supplication. I hefted Luculus Rex over my shoulder, not letting it touch the ground, and I laid the crystalline sword across my leg. Curiously, the HMIA was missing from it. That meant no Himia.

  “Cheroske,” the god drawled.

  The goddess of community moved to stand next to me. When I usually saw her, she took on the form of a dark skinned Halfling, appearing as motherly as could be. Now, she stood a head taller than a Human with short blonde hair and wearing regal armor, as if about to go to war.

  “Stand proud, Badger,” my goddess commanded, putting a hand on my shoulder. I did as she told me. “You are the first person to have laid hands on Luculus Rex since its time with Sir Sampson the Righteous. That is why you brought him here, right, Segrech? To reward him for his bravery, and for saving the worshipers who went searching for it?”

  The sun god’s grip on his throne’s armrests tightened, and I felt it wise to keep my mouth shut.

  “He had denied my warpriest a chance to retrieve it himself, going so far as to wound the very weapon they were there to save,” Segrech intoned, his voice quiet but still coming from everywhere. “Are you insinuating that I should be happy with the way my operation has been interrupted?”

  “The one that would have seen all of your clerics killed?” Cheroske challenged fearlessly, and the light around us became brighter. She seemed unperturbed even as my skin sizzled, and summoned a parasol that she held to protect me. “Let’s not mince words, Segrech. Your operation was only made possible because of this expedition, and you commanded your clerics to move on their own.”

  “It is within my right to do so,” he replied, crossing his arms. “You all knew how important this was to me, and it was within my grasp.”

  “Yes, you do think that’s within your right to doom your own people to a fight they cannot win,” the goddess returned. “But you don’t get to play with the fate of the world the same way. My paladin was sent to help despite the implications of his personal quest to defeat that boil of a Dungeonborn who claimed the continent as her own. Your interference has stymied that quest, and you want to reward his heroics with, what, exactly?”

  “He got in the way of—”

  “Badger saved your clerics, sun god,” Cheroske interrupted, her tone now that of a disappointed mother. “I will agree that Noknok Dor is a powerful warrior, but he was not capable of ending this fight even with the backup of the clerics he brought with him. You are simply too proud to admit that, especially with my paladin in the room. Now, I suggest very strongly that you reward Badger for his service. Perhaps by giving him a boon that will end the terrible circumstances he finds himself in—because your warpriest certainly would not have survived in that beast’s stomach—and sending him on his way.”

  I could not see Segrech’s face, but I could tell there was a battle of wills going on between the two deities. The ground shook, likely due to the sun god’s anger at being called out, and I kept my eyes on it. I was in a dangerous position here, but one that I had faith I would survive.

  “Wrath of the Sun,” the god spat in the language of the divine, as if casting a spell, and I felt heat rising up through me.

  “Thank you, Segrech,” Cheroske said amicably, as if she hadn’t just chastised a god that many thought was above her. She turned and smiled sweetly down at me. Her hand was placed on my head, but it felt more motherly than condescending. “Keep up the good work, my child. I can’t say much, but know that you’re on the right path.”

  “I appreciate your words, goddess,” I replied, lowering my head in deference even as my body grew warmer. Then hotter, with no end in sight.

  There were few things I was more thankful for than the fact that my mouth was closed when I returned to my body. I knew that no time would have passed at all, but some things still worried me.

  Like the heat radiating from my body and blistering my skin. It looked as though I wasn’t getting out of this without Segrech punishing me at least a little bit, but if it meant I would be out of this Dragon’s stomach shortly I would take the pain.

  The acid surrounding me boiled and popped when I stood up to my full height, and I opened my eyes to see that I was in total darkness. I wasn’t sure if it was because of Luculus Rex or Wrath of the Sun, but I could hear the fire raging around my body. More and more of the gastric juice came towards me before evaporating into steam, searing the inside of the Dragon’s stomach.

  I was tossed to and fro as the beast panicked at what it was feeling inside. It didn’t matter how hard it concentrated now, it definitely wasn’t going to be casting any more spells with this pain spreading through it.

  What it could do was vomit.

  The acid around me pushed me back towards the Shadow Dragon’s throat in an effort to eject me from its body. Each of my small sword stabs must have been too tiny to warrant such a reaction, but a high-powered divine intervention was something else entirely.

  Keeping a grip on Luculus Rex, I didn’t bother swinging it around. The same couldn’t be said of my crystalline sword. I flailed it around without grace or dignity, looking to deal as much damage as I possibly could on my way out.

  When I was pushed upwards into the throat, I dug my weapon in as deep as I could and braced myself with the hammer against the hilt. I wasn’t about to put it against the blade and further risk the wrath of the sun god. The pressure from the torrent pushed me forward, but much slower than intended.

  I made it halfway up the Shadow Dragon’s throat before the fire damage from Wrath of the Sun and my long cut made the monster collapse. The danger of being crushed as the muscles around me went limp was real, but I was small enough that I could crawl through.

  The heat left my body, indicating the end of the spell. Still, I didn’t trust it completely. Before I started moving, I threw in a few stabs in every direction to make sure of its demise.

  It took way too much effort to make it to the Dragon’s mouth, and I found that it had fallen open sideways. I pulled the Darklight Goggles off of my head to see the light from Luculus Rex simmer down into something far more manageable, and I clearly saw the horrified looks of everyone who had come to try and rescue me from the beast’s stomach.

  Which, apparently, had been everyone. All of the previously downed clerics and the rest of my team were there now that the danger was gone.

  “Ferrisdae,” I said, grimacing at the smell as I walked down the Dragon’s tongue. “Hit me with your Clean spell, please.”

  The Forest Elf had looked terrified with her hands covering her mouth, but the moment I asked the question she relaxed. “I thought you said you didn’t like the way it travels down your skin.”

  “Circumstances, kid,” I growled, raising my hands. “Now, thanks.”

  She cast the spell as I left the Dragon’s mouth. Everyone gave me a wide berth except Noknok, who tensed up as I got closer. I ignored that just as well as I ignored the feeling of my outer layer of skin sloughing off along with everything else was welcome compared to everything else I had just gone through.

  If Justisius asked me to go help another team, I might just have to tell him to go shove it.