I nearly threw up.

Even as the creatures evaporated, the smell of burned flesh filled the cave, and the penal squad wouldn't stop glancing behind their backs. I was well aware of the Princess' new capabilities, but not their extent. She made quick work of the entire wave of imps, using the same miracle that sent the Sea People's royalty flying.

This comparison also awakened a new appreciation towards the blue-robed girl, if she managed to survive this brutal force. Or maybe Elizabeth held back in the arena and now she let loose out of being scared? She seemed as surprised to me as everyone else though.

"C-cath, where did they go?" She asked whispering, taking quick breaths, once our small force finally continued its journey inside.

"You fried them all, and they turned into a smelly cloud." I did my best to sound calm, but it made me wonder if my magic-resistant armor would stand a chance against that barrage. I couldn't believe she wasn't aware of the extent of her new power. "Don't tell me you don't remember."

"I-I do, but I thought someone else did something too because there is no way I did that alone." She shook her head, and I struggled to accept the fact too. "N-no, you didn't tell me that. This is not how it worked the last time either... Oh, sorry it's just..."

"Yeah, your Geddu, I know." I shrugged, curious about what was going on inside her head. "What did the goddess tell you?"

"N-nothing in particular, she just said to calm down..." That did sound like a good idea. If she fried our team during a panic attack, this journey would have ended abruptly. Her strength was already impressive back in the arena, but this was on a completely different level. Or maybe the creatures were weak... "Did I get them all?"

"You did, Lizzy, before they reached us. But I'm worried about the cost you might have to pay for this later." I knew what deities sometimes demanded in exchange for their miracles.

If they even answered the calls. Some wanted mana, others a sacrifice, prayers, or spreading their word. And if they didn't receive what they wanted, the gods wouldn't hesitate to cut off even their most devout followers. This is why wizards were generally viewed as superior while their powers rarely compared to priests and paladins.

"Ah, uh, Geddu said it's fine, she always wanted to explore a dungeon or something, so she will help just to entertain herself..." She kept her voice low, but I could still see Aoi's wild expression. I can't say I wasn't jealous either when Remmol wouldn't even answer my prayers here.

This place was rooted in the real world, but beyond a specific point, we were expected to enter a space between spaces, a separate dimension, where their power couldn't materialize unless they were present.

And since Gadurien promised her support, it thought about what the blue-robed girl said. She might become an avatar, not a priest… No matter how useful it seemed in the short term, I could not even imagine, what would happen to the Princess once this journey was over. She already changed a lot, and I was worried about her sanity. And from the stolen glances, the others feared her too.

"Let's just uh, move on then, and try not to destroy the entire cave while we're in it." I patted her back for now, and from the other's muffled mumbling, they seemed to have the same thoughts.

As we pressed on, we reached one junction after the other. The princess in blue would stop and perform some sort of ritual before each one, and decide on which way to continue after a few seconds. If she tried to follow the mana trails or asked for some kind of divination, I couldn't tell, but the other wizards nodded in unison every time she made a move.

The second wave of enemies counted much less imps, and thankfully Elizabeth didn't panic this time. This meant the front row had some work to do, and they braced their shields against the abyssal swarm.

They didn't seem too tough, a gentle swing with my falchion was more than enough to slice through them, like cutting into marshmallow. The bodies didn't evaporate immediately this time either, and whenever I accidentally stepped on one, my feet sunk into it as if I were walking in deep snow. I had no idea what kind of creatures they were meant to be.

"Don't let them surround us, and they won't be able to penetrate your shield wall." The Saipole princess ordered the penal squad, and they started to get the hang of it too. If anything, our ease of advance felt underwhelming. Why did they need us for this?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

This was my first time meeting imps, and from the codexes I read back in the Church, this was very different from how I imagined them. They posed no real threat even if Elizabeth didn't go on a rampage, but there were lots of them, and after leaving the first few junctions behind, they occasionally appeared behind us as well.

The team defeated about ten waves without any serious injuries, then they simply stopped coming. For some reason, this sudden calm and silence felt even more eerie, than fighting the endless hordes of weak enemies. This did not last long either.

"I sense a strong enemy up ahead," Aoi noted with her eyes closed, concentrating in front of yet another junction. "It's almost like he sent all those imps to the surface to probe our defenses... But behind it is where the real dungeon starts, and he is currently alone."

"What do you mean real dungeon? What was it until now?" The Princess asked raising her voice. "And just how strong does that mean? Don't scare me, if it's still in the same league as these orange things..."

"I, um... It is strong, but probably still wouldn't mean a threat with this many wizards prepared to fight it." The blue-robed girl raised her hand to her mouth as if she were pondering on something. I understood if it was hard to gauge the enemy's strength when I couldn't even measure ours.

Elizabeth skewed my expectations. But now she no longer panicked, rather, I recognized those age-old confident and arrogant expressions on her face. Since we hadn't reached the dungeon, it was too early to lower one's guard, but I wouldn’t dare to mention this to her directly. Better act calm and let the others deal with things.

"We are all ready, Aoi Sama, but I can cast defensive auras on ourselves if you request it." One of the older wizards offered. I started to suspect something tough was waiting ahead since she didn't answer immediately, and we stood there for a whole minute.

We exchanged glances with the Princess, and her grin slowly turned into a frown. That confidence of hers didn't last long after all.

"I don't have her senses, and Geddu refuses to tell me anything." She whispered into my ear. "What if they just wanted to lure us into a false sense of security, and we will only encounter the real enemy now?"

"No, prepare to cast one if needed, but the hard part will come after this, so keep as much of your mana in reserve as possible." The verdict finally came from the blue-robed girl, and she gave the order. "Let's head on through the middle cave and commence a full frontal attack."

"Maybe it's not alerted to our presence yet?" One of the prisoners asked, but that seemed unlikely considering how much mana fluctuations the first attack caused, and if the creature sent all those swarms to gather information. Since they never returned and disappeared sooner and closer to the source it must have felt something.

"Don't let your guard down and defend the wizards at all costs." A veteran gladiator told them, and I was on high alert, looking in every direction for hidden traps, enemies waiting to ambush us... But nothing of the sort appeared. If anything, the cave widened a lot here, and soon the single enemy figure was in our line of sight.

It was significantly larger than the imps but the skin was similarly orange. I saw two horns too, and a whip in his hands. After all the hesitation from the Sea People magicians, it was underwhelming.

"Oh, so that's what a pit fiend looks like?" I heard the Princess ask and assumed she got the information from the deity in her head. "I thought they were red and much larger... So that would be a lord, huh?"

"Elizabeth, we can't hear what Gadurien tells you, so please..." I tried to warn her before everyone thought she lost her mind. Well, they already feared her for sure, I could tell from the glances they stole at her, but her maniacal laughter didn't help her case either.

"Ah, sorry, sorry, you are right." She grabbed onto my shoulder to support herself laughing, then once she calmed down, pointed a finger towards the monster. "She said that thing is the abyssal equivalent of a mage, but he seems scared because of how easily we destroyed his summons. It ran out of mana a while ago, that's when things got quiet."

I almost felt sorry for the thing and envied her ability to see through it, even if she had to borrow it from a whimsical deity. Still, as if the pit fiend had heard her remarks, he cracked his whip and shouted something towards us in his abyssal language.

I had never seen a dungeon from the inside, nor the creatures that populated it, so I couldn't even guess what he was trying to say. The Princess laughed and squeezing herself through our shield wall, she set out to challenge the monster alone. It seemed like her mental state only took one second to swing from panic to arrogance back and forth.

"Aoi Sama, is it right to let that woman do as she pleases?" One of the wizards asked and I had the same question, though for a different reason. Elizabeth started to get out of hand. Instead of a priest who projected her chosen god's powers, she behaved like an actual avatar and a chaotic one.

"We will see, but be ready to restrain her, if anything seems off." The blue-robed woman answered, followed by a glance at me. At least she didn't say kill, I could agree with some restraint. The Princess in the meantime walked into the whip's range. The fiend was visibly shaking at this point, and so did the penal squad in the front line.

The creature snapped his whip at her, but she held out the short sword, and the whip rolled up into the blade. A quick jerk was enough to drag the monster closer, and her fist was already glowing. I could already tell what would happen next, but the severity surprised me still.

Once the Iron Fist connected, the fiend's body simply exploded...