Delphi had come up and Zalia had explained her idea with the Living trapvine to them. They had said it wasn’t such a bad idea and it might possibly work considering the trapvine seemed to be a part of the god in the first place. With that dealt with, they had gone up to the surface to fly across to the god.

Zalia still felt… a little unsafe flying across but this time decided to be a little more careful. She applied a few rituals to herself, Boreal and Delphi before they left the cave. The first three were the trio that made up the protective rituals in the grove. The ritual to protect against normal senses, the one to protect against spiritual type senses and the one that blocked spiritual type attacks. Additionally, she used a new one that she had come up with using the shadow element from the glowing cavern fungus.

It was… essentially a type of invisibility, or close to. She used a Cavern fungus major and Bitterbalm minor ritual to convert the element to light instead of shadow. Then, she used the light element as the major and Dodge-vine as the minor to give herself a kind of protection from light. Maybe that wasn’t the right way to describe it, using light as protection might have been better. Either way, the effect essentially warped light in a weird way around her such that she didn’t become invisible but semi-transparent, blurry almost. Unfortunately, it also did something weird to her vision such that the world became a little blurry.

It was still possible to see but it would not be usable in a fight for instance. For a flight across a large distance where her destination was a giant island, it was perfect though.

They made the flight quickly, Delphi having gone back to a haphazard flight after the light guarding ritual was applied. Fortunately for Zalia and Boreal, they both were able to see vibrations in the air and that particular sense wasn’t affected by the light ritual. Due to that as well as the flight passive and their mental attributes, they were able to fly without hindrance. With the stacks of stealth based rituals, passives and abilities, Zalia was unable to see Boreal whatsoever. The only reason she could sense that Boreal was near at all during the flight was due to the bond they shared, something she usually didn’t use to locate Boreal unless absolutely necessary. It also didn’t really work from a long range but they were close enough in flight to keep together.

Delphi on the other hand, Zalia could still see, if barely. They didn’t have any stealth passive as far as she knew, probably having had no need to develop one. She didn’t even know if it was possible for them to get one, she didn’t exactly understand how gaining general passives worked entirely. Sometimes they just appeared and she was happy for it. She wasn’t about to go around searching out every single resistance or utility passive she could get her hands on, after all.

Once they reached the temple and had entered, Zalia went over to greet Ro with a bop to the head.

“Finding yourself bored out here yet?” Zalia asked.

Ro led her over to a corner where there was a small stack of shiny objects. Something like a coin, a piece of… tin foil? A pebble that was startlingly reflective.

“What’s all this?” she asked.

Ro looked at her expectantly.

“Don’t tell me you expect me to store all of these in the vault too,” Zalia said, aghast.

Ro bobbed his head up and down.

Zalia sighed.

She opened her vault and the god suspended by vines immediately turned and stared at the portal.

“W-what is that?” it asked.

“It’s a vault that stores things. It is also part of my Druid Grove,” Zalia explained.

“It feels like… nature,” the god whispered.

“It is,” Zalia said with a smile, “there is a larger one on one of the other islands too. Your altar, at least I’m pretty sure it is one of yours, sits right in the middle of it. Can you feel it?”

The god turned its head away from the portal and looked, by Zalia’s estimation, directly towards the cave, through the wall far off into the distance.

“Yes, I can feel it. Nature, such a small pocket but it is there. Did you do this?” it asked.

“Yes, I’ve been cultivating a few plants, making them stronger. Forming a little ecosystem of sorts. Nature returns to your world,” Zalia replied.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

It didn't reply, still staring as if it could see through the wall. Maybe it even could, she didn’t know how a god functioned.

She picked up Ro’s small pile of shinnies and went and stored them with the spoon she also had in there. Luckily, she was able to store them all as one item in the same spot so it didn’t take up any more space. She would have to figure out how far she could stretch that particular function. How much of something could it hold or how big of an item could it store.

She left the vault again, leaving it open so the god could feel its presence.

“I have something that might be able to jog your memory a bit. Would you like us to try? It will be a simple ritual involving a piece of the trapvine from above, the one you are connected to,” Zalia explained.

“I would not say no to such a thing. Try what you will,” it replied, still staring into the distance.

Zalia shrugged, then pulled out a piece of the trapvine. She also deposited some of the Glowing Cavern Fungus and helped it grow onto the walls. Flora identification had told her it had relevance to this god so she thought it might help in some way. She had also used the ability on the trapvine but all it had done was confirm that it was indeed connected physically to the god. It had no religious significance, that her ability told her at least.

Next, she pulled out some Frozen Heart and Herbal magic took the ingredients, each turned to fine cut dried pieces by Preparation. They floated into a ritual circle before Zalia, pointed at the god. She also added some Adastem to the mix, the ritual shifting to form a different pattern. It was a last minute adjustment by her because she thought the extra comprehensibility when dealing with an unknown memory issue would be helpful.

She activated the ritual and a dim glow emanated from the circle as the ingredients began burning away. The god finally looked away from the wall towards her, Delphi off to the side ready to intervene in any way they could.

A pulse went through the god and it sat up a little straighter, a presence unlike anything it had previously displayed coming to the fore. It was, unfortunately, only momentary. It relaxed back, the strength fading.

“Anything?” she asked.

“There was… something. I remembered but it is gone. I don’t think whatever you did was powerful enough,” it replied sadly.

“Damn,” Zalia said.

It was progress at least. If she could find some way to turn it into a living ritual maybe?

The issue with that is she didn’t know if she would be able to just grow one of the Living trapvine like that. Unless she could somehow… make the huge one above into part of the ritual. That was definitely something to think long and hard about before making a rash decision. She didn’t know how it would react to her doing such a thing let alone if it would work. Maybe it would have an adverse effect on the god as well, who knew.

No, she thought this was good enough for now.

Boreal and Ro were sitting politely next to each other, Boreal practicing at not being an entire goofball.

“Well, any more ideas?” Zalia asked the room.

She personally had a few but wanted a little more confirmation that the living rituals weren’t what had drawn the demons attention. Though, the Gold ranked bulb above was very capable of defending against a lot that could come this way. Maybe not something like the aura monster but if that thing cared at all about it, surely it would have found the bulb by now. How long this god had been down here, she had no idea. Sometime during the history of the Endarian kingdom, though how long that was, she had no idea.

Now would be a good time to have someone around who had studied a lot of history. Or knew any, at all.

“The collective has no further ideas at this time,” Delphi said.

“Hmm, Boreal no, feeding it more won’t work,” Zalia mentioned as she noticed Boreal looking at the god.

“Wasn’t thinking that,” Boreal complained.

“What were you thinking then?” Zalia asked.

“... could… give it water,” Boreal explained.

“I don’t think gods get thirsty Boreal,” Zalia replied,” you don’t get thirsty do you?”

She asked anyway, just in case.

“I have no need for nourishment of the sorts you require. Something else entirely,” it explained.

“What would that be?” Zalia asked.

“I do not know, at this moment,” it said.

“Yeah, thought as much,” Zalia replied with a sigh.

…

“You have a temple in the city,” Zalia said, a memory surfacing.

She had seen the gods symbol above one of the crumbling buildings near the keep in Hetheir. She had even used it to secure the large metal object she had used to distract many of the undead. Far back, before she had any flight at all.

“I cannot feel the temple of which you speak. Not as I can feel the altar within your grove,” it said softly.

“You might not have been able to feel that altar at all before I… healed it? Maybe this one is the same!” Zalia replied, a little excitement in her tone.

“I do not know. If you would be kind enough to search it for me, I would appreciate your assistance,” it pleaded.

“I will, I have a little free time now in which I can go check it out,” Zalia said.

“Thank you,” the god replied.

“My pleasure,” Zalia said, giving a little bow.