“I-I’m sorry, It’s because of me that—” says amara her face covered in tears, “I should have never hired you.”

The party of adventurers find themselves trapped in the pit that the orcs use to keep prisoners. Before they were thrown in, the orcs had stripped them of all of their armor and weapons leaving them in a vulnerable state.

“You don’t need to carry that burden, I knew that the orcs had a chief” Eliza says while falling back against the dirt walls of the pit. “I didn’t realize that it was that much of a monster.”

“Indeed, we made the right decision not to fight it.” Says Adria before falling down next to Eliza, “We get to live at least a little longer.”

“Are you all giving up that easily, we’re all still alive and there’s now six of us”Ivan speaks as he gestures to the ragged woman in the corner. “Well Amara, is she your mother?”

Looking carefully at the blond woman who wears nothing but a threadbare gown, Amara shakes her head. This woman’s hair is much to short and she’s ten years to young. “What is your name?”

“My name is Alli . . .”

“I’m Amara, how did you get here”

“My husband and I were walking along the roads headed west,” Alli says before putting her head in her hands. “We were so sick of life in Aren, so we decided to head to the town of Rissel. While we had some adventurers guiding us, when a group of orcs jumped us they… were defeated. The orcs took us captive, My husband and I.”

“Your Husband…”

Alli nods as confirmation with tears in her eyes.

“Was anyone else here?”

“No…”

“What about… bodies? Did they bring in any bodies from other raids?”

Alli shakes her head. “The adventurers that we travelled with were the only ones.”

“Did the orcs say anything about a fight, near the southern road.” Amara stammers before she feels a familiar touch on her shoulder.

“Amara,” Eliza says in a stern voice, “Perhaps you should let her rest.”

“I did hear just one thing”Alli shakes her head again. “I remember an orc mentioned that a patrol didn’t return from the south.”

“Then…” Amara suddenly lightens her expression, “There’s a chance my mother escaped. All we have to do now is escape.”

“How?” Eliza says “We have no weapons no armor, we can barely even reach the wooden bars let alone break them.”

“I have a plan. I’m going to try to cast magic to burn the bars.” Amara smiles

“Magic! You were a mage the whole time?”

“No, definitely not. I only know bits and pieces but I did memorize the magic circles that were used in the inn’s stove, as well as a few others.”

“But even then, what do you know about activating it?”

“Enough, it might be crude but we have to try something. Do you have a better plan?”

Eliza shakes her head. “Mmnn, it’s better than nothing. How can we help?”

“We need space to draw the circle. We don’t have proper materials so we need to clear a space about 2 meters in diameter.” Amara says before grabbing a stick from the ground.

After the group manage to clear away and flatten a space for the circle, Amara gets to work at drawing the circle out with the stick.

“Now… we need a medium, anything that can conduct mana will work but we don’t have much of a choice. Please lend me your blood.” Amara gives a bow “we need to paint over the circle with it.”

The adventurers look at each other and before long Ivan speaks, “Are you sure this will work? That’s a lot of blood”

“It doesn’t all need to be from the same person, we just need a thin layer”

Nodding, the adventurers pass around a sharp stick that was lying in the pit, they each take it and slice open their hands with it. With their freshly drawn blood they crouch down and work at painting the circle. Amara chooses to do the same and contribute her own blood, however, Alli remains motionless in the corner.

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“Alright, is this good?”

“Yes, now stand back. The last step is to catalyze the circle.”

“What does that mean?”

“We need to do something to activate it. Usually its a certain phrase word or chant but other times its a material.”

“Magic is serious business.”

“Well most of the time mages use chants since its easier but magic circles seem to be more powerful and complex.”

“So what are we going to do to catalyze it?”

“That’s the problem, I don’t know how.” Amara looks at the ground. “I figured that if we can just find a way to trigger it everything will be fine. If only we had a mana core”

“Is that all we need?”

“Ahh, mana cores are the most effective method”

“That’s simple, consider it done.” Eliza gives a smile. “Ivan help me out here”

Eliza gets on top of Ivan’s back and reaches up past the edge of the pit, grabbing tightly onto a large object. She shouts down at Ivan. “Ok, step back Ivan, this is pretty heavy.” Ivan steps back and in a quick second the corpse of an orc appears above the pit.

“This is pretty gross but well, I have to do it.” Eliza closes her eyes, and pinches her nose. Gagging visibly, Eliza reaches her hands into the orc’s viscera through the cut on it’s nape. After a while of wet squishing sounds she finally pulls her hand out with a small red orb. “I did it!”

The mana core shimmers with light despite the darkness of the pit. Eliza hands it to Amara who then walks over the the magic circle. With the stick in her other hand, Amara places the core in the center of the blood inscription. A few flashes shimmer through the circle and a thin red light fills the pit. The glow grows stronger as a wave of light rushes over covering every inch of the circle. The mana core in the center sputters to life an a few flickers of flame spark out from it.

Staring at the flickering core, the adventurers can’t help but smile for a moment—“Crack” A single fissure runs down the center of the mana core and a then the core releases a bright flash blinding the adventurers.

“N-no,” Amara says after readjusting her eyes. Several parts of the blood circle have evaporated into the air, forming a gagging iron-tasting mist. The mana core in the center is broken into many small fragments.

Lunella flys above the orc encampent, looking for wherever Amara and the others may be. Staring down at all the torches and flames dotting the encampment, she can’t help but grip her fists tight. Where are you! What’s wrong with this encampment, it’s almost bigger than the town—

Before Lunella could finish her thought a bright light appears the an area near the center of the camp. Flapping her wings quickly she manages to keep control of her flight, still the light is so bright that she loses her vision for a while. That was them, wasn’t it.

As her vision returns Lunella takes note of the origin of the light and flys toward it. As she flys low to the ground she has a mesh of thin logs on the ground resembling the jail cell she had just escaped from. A slight frown appears on her face as she thinks to herself, Looks like you had it rough too, huh.

Landing heavy footed on the ground next to the pit, Lunella dips her head down onto the bars and shouts “Humans! Are you in there?”

The darkness makes it difficult to see but Lunella can make out several figures. Amara falls backwards to the ground visibly shaken. Eliza steps up and replies,“Yeah, we’re in here, six of us.”

“Is Amara there?”

Amara grabs on to Eliza’s arm and gives a frail nod. She speaks out in a trembling voice. “I-I’m here Lunella. Y-You’re here to kill me aren’t you?” Amara’s fist grips clenches tightly and she raises her head. “I won’t resist, just please, spare the others. Don’t let my stupidity result in there lives being lost. I’m the target of your revenge, not them.”

“You really do just see me as a monster now don’t you?” Lunella lets out a sigh, “But there isn’t time for this, I’m going to get all of you out of here.”

“You’re not here for revenge?”

“Why would I be?”

“B-because I”

“You hurt me, you really did. I trusted you, even though I know that I shouldn’t have. You threw me in jail where I was tortured. Do you know how painful it is to sleep with a knife stabbed into your leg?”

“T-then why aren’t taking revenge”

“How would your suffering make me feel better. I said I was your friend and I meant it.” Lunella nods before responding, “I came to save you. Maybe things between us are too bad to be repaired, but even then I still can’t help but want to care for you. I’m an idiot aren’t I?”

“B-but” Amara falls to the ground bawling, “I don’t deserve to be saved.”

“Deserve? Stars, this world is so unfair I’m not sure that word has any meaning anymore.”

Lunella takes out her platinum-shaded sword and with a single swing cuts open the cage. Catching it in her other hand she pulls the mesh off to the side and jumps in. Suddenly the adventurers go pail when they finally see the black wings and horns coming from Lunella

“D-d-demon!” Eliza yells before the adventurers all group up together. Alli, screams out.

“So much for sneaking out of here.” Lunella looks at the group and puts a hand to her head. “Can’t this wait? You can scream and try to kill me later, we have to get out. Come here, I’ll lift you out of the pit, I’m quite strong—”

A horn bellows from outside the pit, Lunella jumps up to the edge and witnesses crowds of orcs pour in, surrounding them.

Several quakes are heard from a large building, and then the massive barn doors swing open nearly breaking from their hinges. The massive orc chief waddles out of his residence with a snarl on his face.

“Two times! You humans woke me up two times in one night. Forget it, live sacrifices aren’t worth it—” His bellowing voice breaks as soon as he sets his sights on Lunella. “A demon. Why are you here.”

Lunella’s notices that her hands are shaking, but she clenches them onto the sword a yells back. “That’s right, I’m a demon and I’m here to save these people. I suggest you surrender!”

“Hooooh, a real challenger. Hahahaha, It’s been too long, and a demon at that! Very well, I accept!”