Sam and the rest of the team wisely decided to say nothing, allowing the apparition to gather her thoughts. She looked around, more than likely seeing more than them or maybe she was just seeing more as a spirit.
Finally, her attention returned to the team and began speaking.
“You managed to undo what I have wrought. Thus, I must thank you for it. If not for your actions, I fear my people and I would have been forever trapped in this infinitely repeating nightmare. I have no knowledge of who built this edifice of madness, but if I were alive, I would do everything in my power to find them and show them the error of their ways!” By the end, she was angrily shouting.
Not at them but at the world.
Sam exchanged a glance with his friends and after a brief non-verbal communication, he turned back to the raging spirit.
“Er, what exactly happened? If you don’t mind us asking?” he spoke up a little hesitantly, fearing that he would trigger the spirit even more, driving her into a mad rage. But to their luck, the spirit realized what she was doing and made the effort to calm down with a few deep breaths.
A minute later she closed her eyes and then opened them, staring directly at Sam with an intense gaze.
“Why what else, but one of the oldest sins? I was betrayed.”
“Betrayed?”
“Yes. I received a revelation from my goddess calling me on a journey.” She took a fortifying breath and continued. “I went, of course. It was a call from my goddess, as such I couldn’t possibly refuse. My enemies knew this as well. I noticed too late that somebody had sabotaged one of my protections that defended my mind.”
“Ah…”
“Ah, indeed,” she nodded with a small smile. “It wasn’t the only defense for my mind, but it protected me from a specific subset of attacks. Can you guess what happened?” She asked sardonically.
Sam said nothing and she simply continued.
“I suspect that one of my scouts was subverted because when it began to rain, they directed us to a well-protected grotto, where we found trees bearing scrumptious-looking fruit,” she explained. “By the time I realized what happened, it was too late. The grotto ensnared us.”
“The grotto?” Clarissa quietly asked.
“Yes. It’s a malevolent spirit that inhabits small grottos, or other natural phenomena and uses beguiling magic to draw its victims to them. They project an aura that promises safety and you shall never leave after stepping foot into its domain.”
“Then why hasn’t it attacked us yet?”
Here the spirit’s sad smile turned into a vicious one.
“It may have ensnared us, thanks to sabotage, but it took a while to subdue all of us. I suspect you may have found some of the mad ramblings of my followers. It made sure to lock me down immediately, knowing that I was the most dangerous to its existence.” She grinned. “But I wasn’t fully helpless and a priestess has many more tools than our enemy knows. With their minds weakened thanks to the beguiling magic, it was child’s play to act through the bodies of the true believers.”
“You had them cut down the trees and make the walls…” Sam whispered, impressed.
The spirit of the priestess nodded proudly. “Indeed, I did. The spirit couldn’t stop me, but neither could I free myself. And after the last tree was cut down, it jumped into the body of my guardian.” She continued the explanation, however as she talked she lost her vicious grin and her expression once again turned to deep sadness. “I couldn’t let it escape. Especially not with the body of my guardian…”
None of them spoke up, really wanting to know what actually happened.
“Thus, with my last strength I scattered the soul that the spirit latched on to,” she declared proudly. “But the spell has its drawbacks. It creates an anchor – the crystal – and if enough pieces are returned to it the malevolent spirit would be revived. I was hoping that a search party would find us and exorcise the spirit, but alas…
“The Fracture happened…”
“That’s what they call it?” she asked idly but nodded in agreement. “Yes, the madness that swept through the world reached us too, creating these caves around the fortification. I suspect we may have been doomed to languish forever here if it weren’t for your actions…”
Sam wisely didn’t mention the altar and crystal that was siphoning demonic energy from the fracture. There was no point in upsetting the spirit even more.
For a minute they stood there in silence while the spirit hovered in front of them, seemingly lost in her thoughts.
Sam cleared his throat and spoke up.
“What now?”
The priestess's head snapped at Sam, and his hand tightened on the pommel of his sword, mentally preparing a spell that would hopefully affect the spirit.
Then she smiled.
“You need not fear, human. I am not for this world anymore, nor are my followers.” She fell silent but once again, as did Sam and his team. “Sometimes, the vision from my goddess was about this moment,” she murmured, seemingly to herself, but they all heard it clearly. She shook her ghostly head and refocused on Sam. “I simply wanted to thank the intrepid team that freed me from my self-made cage.”
“You’re welcome?”
“Indeed,” she replied with a small bow. “But fret not, I know the nature of adventure. You seek riches and treasure and I shall provide.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Now that sounded much more appealing to Sam who expected another quest from the demons. Maybe to fulfill the aforementioned prophecy of a demonic goddess.
“I can’t provide anything tangible, but while locked away I had nothing but time on my hands,” she said, while holding up her right arm, a finger pointed at the team. “But I suspect, you would like this better than any gold I could bestow upon you.”
The moment she finished speaking a gentle white light in the shape of a beam left her finger and after travelling a yard away from her it split into four and within two blinks arrived in front of them. And right there, before hitting their bodies the light stopped and formed into four identical crystals made of the light.
None of them touched it, of course.
Seeing their hesitation, the spirit just smirked. “Go on, it won’t bite…” she spoke, making a shooing motion with her hands.
They just looked at Sam who stared at the slowly spinning light crystal, both with his eyes and Mana Sense. But the only thing he could sense was holy mana… Finally, after a few minutes of scrutiny, he nodded and reached for the crystal in front of him, the others mirroring his movement.
The moment his fingers made contact with the crystal it dissolved and the light seeped into his hand and a notification appeared in front of him.
[You have freed the Priestess of the Dark Lady from her torment and she rewarded you with a skill that she developed during her imprisonment.]
[You gained Spirit Protection!]
[Spirit Protection: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) Your connection with your partner spirit grants you an ethereal protection for your mind. The skill grants you a flat amount of protection as long as your spirit partner is near you. Protection increases by 1% per skill level.]
He read the skill information and grinned. Based on the small noises the others were making they also got some nice skills. He returned his attention to the spirit who was watching them rather smugly. Noticing his attention she winked at him, bowed once again and then simply faded away.
Instantly the cave began to shake as the anchor for the fracture left the material world.
----------------------------------------
A minute later they were back in the chamber where now the only thing that provided light was the crystal absorbing the demonic energy until Sam summoned a light of his own.
Sitting on a chair he created with earth magic he looked at the others then clicked on a button and shared the screen of his new skill. “I got some mind defenses. What did you guys get?” he asked excitedly.
Katie grinned and immediately showed all of them a skill window.
[Spirit Bolster: Level 0/100 (0%) (Active) Bolster your spirit with this skill when besieged by beguiling or befouling spells. Activating the spell gives a chance to break mind-based spells affecting the user. Chance depends on strength difference, and status points but is increased by 1% for each skill level.]
“Fancy…”
“Yep!”
Dan sat up and also shared his screen. “I suppose it’s my turn…”
[Spirit Fire: Level 0/100 (Active) Burn your spirit to increase the damage of your flames. Each second of activation gives the user a debuff that decreases the mental defenses. Maximum channel time: 10 seconds. For each skill level +0,5 seconds of channel time.]
“Hmm, good for DPS checks and burning down bosses…”
“My thoughts exactly!”
Finally, they all turned to Clarissa who huffed a little but also shared her new skill.
[Spirit Relief: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) Your spirit is strong and honed for healing. Increases the strength of heals that affect others by 1% for each skill level.]
“Not as good as the others…”
Sam just shook his head. “Right… because doubling your outgoing healing is not good…”
“Yeah, but how long will it take me to level it up?”
For that, he didn’t actually have an answer. Thankfully, Katie was rather impatient.
“Now that we have finished with the fracture what’s next? Are we fighting the eagles?” Based on the look in her eyes, Sam suspected that she wanted him to say yes.
He just rolled his eyes and waved his hands at Clarissa. “My dear Clarissa, if you would?”
She scoffed haughtily but stood up and stepped up to the dark crystal, raised her staff, and murmured a quick incantation, causing the head of the staff to shine with a familiar light and within the next breath brought it down on the crystal with a mighty yell.
“PURGE!”
For a moment Sam was worried that the crystal would resist but in the end, nothing happened. The head of Clarissa’s staff crashed into the crystal and in turn, shattered it into tiny pieces that flew everywhere. Some pinged off Katie’s armor, while Dan dove for cover, which turned out to be Katie for some reason.
Instantly, Sam could feel the mana around them calming down, the cloying miasma slowly evaporating into the ether.
----------------------------------------
Knowing that the end of their game time was close, they decided to take a quick look at the outside to see what was going on and then log out. They would deal with the Storm Eagles after resting a little.
Surprisingly they couldn’t hear much as they approached the exit, though the cries and calls of the Storm Eagles were still present.
They crept along the cavern, wary of any foul play, but they reached the end of the corridor without trouble.
There they were met with a rather ghastly sight.
The surroundings were destroyed, previously green grass now blacked or outright missing, and great furrows breaking up the flat terrains, no doubt the results of wind-type attacks from the aggressive eagles.
And to their shock, right in front of the exit sat on the ground the biggest Storm Eagle that any of them ever saw. Sam instantly recognized that it was a boss and he didn’t need his skills to know that they stood no chance against the guardian of the mountains.
And as they observed the monster it opened its giant eyes, each the size of a small child, and looked directly at them.
“Humans.” The voice came from everywhere and nowhere and reverberated around the cavern and in their heads.
Knowing that hiding was useless, Sam stepped out of cover, making sure that his hand was nowhere near his weapon, and bowed, almost at a ninety-degree angle.
“Greetings, Guardian of the Mountains!”
Getting the message, the rest of the team scurried after him and copied him. Except for Puffball who followed them out of the cavern, but without a care in the world sauntered away and within seconds found a nice flat rock, directly in the sunlight, to lay on.
“Is it gone?” came the query from the giant monster.
Sam simply nodded. “Yes.”
“Good. I don’t have to destroy the mountain then.”
He didn’t have anything to say to that. Nor did the guardian. Between two blinks, the giant predator opened its wings, and with a powerful beat launched itself up in the sky, the rest of the birds following their leaders, leaving Sam and the others in the middle of a charred and destroyed clearing.
Bewildered, they just looked at each other until Lucky let out a loud bark.
They found the wolf under one of the few remaining trees, though it had very little leaves remaining on its branches but at least it was standing. Under the tree, nestled between uncovered roots were two round objects, radiating mana.
Eggs.
Sam chuckled. “At least the guardian made sure to pay for our tribulations…” He reached down and gently picked up the eggs. Carefully observing them told him what he already suspected. They were eggs for familiars. Without much hesitation, he instantly offered them to Clarissa and Dan. “Here, you guys don’t have one yet…”
Katie pouted a little, but Puffball chose the moment to jump into her arms, so she had to devote her attention to pleasing her feline companion.
They spent a few minutes setting up a small camp near the clearing, and then after a brief talk, they logged out.