The group pressed hard into the wall near the stairs to the first floor breathing heavily. Rengar and Harold were almost crawling around to heal and bandage everyone as quickly as they could. Amlyn was pale and the wound in her side wasn't helping that state at all. Blood was pouring from it, but was slowing as the amount in her body was running out. Yet, she waited her turn as the others slapped the last healing scroll onto the missing leg and arm of the Mage. He still hadn't told them his name, but it was only thanks to him that they had made it this far. The next group of ants they ran into were the same as before, clever, using tactics, and aggressive. Then the next group had shown up in a two pronged ambush that almost killed Rengar for a second time. After that they just ran and threw out what they could on the run. The Mage's spells allowed them to deal with several dangerous situations that would have killed Harold, leaving us without the healer.

However, the expenditure of mana was clear as they continued to run and he slowed down. That last fight had been a fighting retreat they only won, because Rengar managed to make some kind of explosive that created a rock fall. Given the ants own magical abilities with earth it wouldn't be long before they were on top of them again, and they would have to fight for their lives. Amlyn was done being selfish about her own escape, and even expected that she would be left behind if they needed too. The constant feeling of helplessness since her stealth was disabled just hit too hard after all this time. If she could just use it, then she could get out of her and even help more with the battles. She had watched the others get mauled and sliced by the ants in defense of her weakness. Glancing over at the Mage she felt like his death would be on her hands if it happened.

Sure she had been tired and they had been fighting for at least an hour in retreat, but if her skills had been working she could have dodged that strange ant's slashing spell. It had looked like the earth melted and then shot forward with incredible speed to her eyes. The mage had moved to her side and threw up a [Mana Shield], but it was shattered almost instantly and she had rolled away. It was better that only one of them had been maimed, but she still saw it as her own lack that he did. His skills and abilities were the reason they had made it so far, and it was right that they were putting so much energy into saving him first. As her eyes began to close, she made a silent prayer that they could make it out. Even if the first floor would likely kill them.

"And what if they could get out?" a voice echoed in her thoughts, the air felt suddenly still, and she couldn't really focus on anything except the cold, "What would you do to make sure they were safe?" the voice came again, seemingly stretching out in her mind. This must be what people talked about when they said that everything was surreal at the end. Even the others seemed frozen in place, the world awaiting her response to the question. What would she give to make sure these strangers escaped? She had known Harold and Rengar the longest, even if they hadn't known each other very well. That was just how the Rebellion worked to keep everyone safe. The Mage? He was some big shot from the Council who came to show off how good he was compared to the Shaman no doubt. But, she couldn't fault how quickly he had stepped up to save her life, and even took a lethal hit for her.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

It was easier now to think, and her malicious thoughts were melting away as she looked back on it all. She had been the one at fault this whole time, and if she could help them get out it would be worth any cost. As if the voice could hear her thoughts a sense of acceptance passed through her whole being, and the world faded to black.

"Damn it," Harold said, his voice broken with frustration, fear, and anger at himself. Amlyn had died because he didn't have enough mana or healing items to recover her. The wound in her side was sealed, but her pale white-blue skin under her fur made it clear she had died of blood loss. Rengar placed his hand on the other man in sympathy as he shared the moment of loss. They had all known that Amlyn had become far less useful and reliable without her stealth, but they had been a team and teams didn't let one another down. Even when she had been injured by that magical attack she had still killed that strange mage among the ants that had almost killed Elric, the Mage. Its how she got her wounds in the first place, and had made them all proud with how she had thrown herself into that to protect the rest of them. Now, she had died with honor having given them time to rest. Since the death of the creature is what brought down the walls of stone.

-----

I placed the construct of mana within the containment cage I had made for the occasion. It had been easy to get approval from the dying woman, and it seemed like her memories were a bit scattered from the events that lead to her dead. Of course it had been too good of an opportunity to pass up, so I had told the Queen to wait until I had a chance to experiment. Sure enough, interacting with her life pattern was impossible until she gave permission, and the System had tried to interfere on both sides by attacking my will and denying me access to about a quarter of the pattern. The will attack I just brushed aside since the System was all but gone here. It couldn't draw on the ambient mana, and the corrupted mana in her and me had been shredded by the lingering effects of the orb. Even less in me, of course, since I had hosted the orb beneath my core for days.

Now the woman's pattern rested in the cage of light, parts of the lines gone as I had to cut the corruption from it. Likely it would suffer if I placed it into, or made, a body some form of memory loss and ability loss. Which is why I would try to get more subjects, but I would have to set up the situation similar to this one. They needed to feel lost and without choice before they would agree to some voice in their head, and they would have to be very close to death. As I considered the setup on the first floor, the group in my awareness was taking time to recover since I wasn't letting the ants through yet. The grief needed to fully set in before the next step.

I was also working on the pattern before me. Carefully, setting lines of mana into tight whirls and sharp lines to replace what I knew had been there before. Having a perfect memory had seriously helped in this regard, and I was happy when the last line set into place. The entity stopped feeling like it was going to fade, and I started to decide on how to reforge this 'soul'. After all I had the patterns for so many creatures and the beastkin seemed to be a mesh of human and beast. Suspiciously so, the more I looked at it I could clearly see almost unnatural changes to the pattern. Similar to my own experiments with the ants. The unnatural breaks and changes in the lines persisted through the dozens of generations so far, and likely would continue in the future. So what did it mean that the beastkin seemed to share this trait with my ants? Were they some kind of dungeon creature?