Waiting.

Ah yes, very exciting.

There’s not really much more exciting to do, since Abaris’ grand master plan is to just, ignore the city for now? And search the plane for other towns like Darkwell.

And my kin are only so fast at clearing razorvines.

Izahne doesn’t seem to mind, considering she’s still on my lap and has gotten comfortable with just leaning into me.

My former Assistant has long since dematerialized again, since maintaining a body for her is a negative mana proposal; she’s not as fortunate as I am, where Verum Corpus either has a very low mana draw or no draw at all. She can still communicate with the party while dematerialized though, although that also has a mana cost.

It looks like Omorth is still the only one in the party with any cooking ability, although he himself no longer needs to eat. Well, not ‘food’ anyway. For now, I’m acting as a mana battery for both him and my wife so they don’t have to risk being chewed on by plant monsters to get their fix. Oddly enough though, the animated sword actually did have a Skill for cooking before as a part of his barbarian Class, and as a result of accepting the one I offered, he no longer has it, meaning he’s falling back entirely on practice. From the looks on the two mortals’ faces, I’m assuming it’s not going to be as good.

Oh well. It’s not like we have any real food besides rehydrated trail rations and razorvine fruit anyway.

(You could be fueling me too, you know,) Nyx projects.

Sure, but you don’t need me to. You don’t have Mana Thirst and you also regenerate mana on your own.

(Stingy.)

Whatever.

It’s convenient that we can still communicate like this.

…

Boring.

I do have my own plan though. My kin aren’t actually clearing the razorvines as they search; they’re just searching, and once they find something of interest and notify me, I’m going to –

Ah, speak of the devil.

“I’ve found something. Let’s get moving.”

Omorth looks up from his labors. “Lady Nemesis, I have nearly finished cooking for the mortals. Forgive my imprudence, but it would be a waste of resources and time if we didn’t allow them to eat first.”

I sigh. “Oh, fine. They can eat first and we leave after that.”

Although...

I consider not waiting and investigating the discovery myself, but... No, I should probably just wait. I can move much faster than any of them, and if I go on ahead then I’ll be waiting however long it takes for them to catch up on foot. And that’s just not worth it.

***

Being trapped on this plane has given me plenty of opportunity to learn how better to use Consume.

For example, right now I’m flying ten feet above the ground and clearing a twenty-foot-wide path below me as we travel. I’m currently ferrying the entire party as well, and not even moving slower than usual. Crowds of my kin swarm in from the sides to retain the new road where I’ve cleared so that I won’t have to do this more than once.

And after a few hours of that, we find... a building.

One single building. I can’t help but sigh.

After creating a large clearing around it, I drop my payload and reform my body.

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Abaris is immediately excited by our find, and oddly enough, so is Pearl for some reason.

“I don’t get it. It’s just a building,” I whine.

Pearl glares at me indignantly. “It is not ‘just a building’! This is obviously an ancient temple or monastery or convent or something!”

I tilt my head. “Okay. And what are those?”

“It’s where mortals worship gods,” Izahne answers.

Ooh.

…

I still don’t care.

Wait.

“Is this a temple to me?” I ask.

Abaris gives me a funny look and says, “Very unlikely, unless that is your holy symbol.”

I look where he’s pointing and see a weather-worn carving on the large double doors depicting a hand gripping an orb while surrounded by gems embedded in the wood.

“It’s...”

It’s familiar.

Why is it familiar?

The others all stop and turn to look at me for some reason.

(You’re projecting that aura again,) Nyx warns me.

I take a deep breath to get it back under control.

And then I try to put words to what I’m feeling. “Yes, this symbol is very familiar to me. I’m pretty sure this is Astraea’s.”

“That would make sense,” the party mage answers. “As I understand it, the goddess of the moon... or, whatever she was a goddess of, she was the patron of this plane.”

I shrug and reach out to shove the door open, and feel a force push me back from the building itself... what is this, some kind of barrier?

The dome formed from a shining blue light seems to have pushed back my death knights as well, right past the boundaries I’ve cleared and into the forest of razorvines.

And the mortals are untouched. Great.

I manifest a dozen feelers and scoop my subordinates from the thrashing vines and branches before moving to float above the barrier. I tap at it with another and again confirm that for whatever reason, I’m being rejected by it.

Could be worse though I guess, I’m just now noticing that it didn’t just repel my kin that I'd had holding the clearing; it outright obliterated them. Even their ash is gone, there’s nothing left of them for me to recover! I swarm in a few hundred more to clear a larger area around the dome of light.

“This is normal!” Pearl shouts up to us.

“How the hells is this normal!?” I shout back.

Nyx hovers dematerialized next to me. (We should have anticipated this. ‘Holy’ places tend to reject the undead.)

Wait, are you undead? Can you go in?

(Nope!) she chirps.

Wonderful. That’s not helpful at all. Well, at least I guess the mortals went in without an issue.

***

Are you done yet? I project to the mortals still in the temple.

The lack of a response seems to be a pretty clear ‘no’. I can’t help but sigh.

So I start just, leaning on the barrier with my will. It rumbles and at one point even shows some hairline cracks but doesn’t give.

Annoying. SO ANNOYING.

But it doesn’t seem like there’s anything I can do about it, at least for now.

And of course, right now the door opens again. I drift toward it so I have a clear view and see Abaris and Pearl walk out and...

Who the fuck is that?

The well-dressed but emaciated human steps aside from my two mortals party members and immediately prostrates itself.

“What, you too? Why does everyone do this?”

Its wrinkled face twists into a smile. “Always so hostile, her mistress? This one has awaited her return for so long.”

“Of course I’m hostile! I’m stuck outside this barrier while those two root around in whatever’s inside this ruin. How long do you think I’ve been waiting? I hate waiting!”

(Uhhhhh Nemesis?)

What!?

(You’re doing it again,) Nyx warns.

I sigh. I’m irritated that she’s bothering me, but at the same time I can tell that she’s not wrong. Why is that even more annoying?

I don’t even know who this is!

“Who the hells are you anyway? I don’t know you.”

The human performatively winces before answering. “You wound this one, her mistress! Although, that she should not even recognize this one, her most loyal servant, would lead this one to believe that her majesty has not yet fully reawakened to herself. Would that be a correct understanding?”

They promptly wither under my glare. “I am nobody’s ‘lady’. I am the one once known as the Queen of Hunger, now as Nemesis.” I disperse my body into a massive cloud of ash for dramatic effect before continuing with a sarcastic edge. “Would ‘this one’ be correct in understanding that the one you await is the late Astraea?”

Their eyes widen, but they don’t respond. I drift down to the ground so I have a better view of them and release my death knights before reforming my body.

“I am the god of envy, and of hunger! I am the death of Astraea, whose tattered soul now resides within me!”

“This one would presume that having taken her soul would explain why her majesty perfectly resembles this one's master...?” they trail off.

I... don’t really know how to answer that, so I just shrug and say, “I guess?”

“And her soul does indeed live on within her majesty?”

My brow furrows on its own. “My patience has long since waned. Get to the point.”

They look up and our eyes finally meet. “The point, her mistress, is thus: as her mistress is a part of her majesty, this one shall serve her majesty in her place.”

Great. Some old human wants to serve me.

“You need to listen to what she knows, Nemesis!” Abaris interrupts.

I give him a sideways look. “Don’t tell me, she’s been here since I ate Astraea or something, right? And this barrier kept out my kin, so... wait, why didn’t she starve?”

The wrinkled human lets out a dry chuckle. “This one does not eat, for their sustenance is drawn from the plane itself.”

(Uhhh...)

Now what?

(Just, use Identify. I get why you don’t bother usually, yeah, sure. Trust me here.)

Fine.

[Lunar Daemon – High Priestess of Night – System Assistant Emeritus]

Oh.