Addas disappeared.

Once he led us into his massive castle, he left us alone. Whatever his intentions, I took Gitaut's advice and found a cozy corner to connect with my crystal. My mental fortitude needed reinforcing.

The fortress swarmed with creatures we'd seen before, and ones I was glad we had never encountered. Minotaurs were the most common, but the fairies were the most annoying, and the only ones that bothered us.

The dungeon core must have been close but it promised to be impossible to approach as we were now. First, we had to deal with the green dragon, which was a tall order. I needed ideas and wished the Goddess was here to help me out. But she told us up front, she wouldn't be able to intervene. Emi couldn't do magic, and the two witches were still out of it, thanks to those pixies.

So I did what I do best, and secluded myself to think. The others decided to explore the vast halls instead, rather disoriented. I refused to end up like them and studied up on the defensive spells.

The magic stone at least answered my calls, unaffected by all this chaos. The lingering pressure of the god's aura made spells difficult to cast, even on myself. As the crystal revealed, most of them didn't matter anyway. True Deities were virtually invulnerable.

A fight between two warriors ended when one damaged his body enough that he could no longer fight. For wizards, as long as they imagined a spell and gathered enough mana, they could turn things around. Their defeat came once they couldn't see their victory anymore. But gods were on a different level.

Their spells materialized before they even thought about them. Their power was immeasurable using human standards, and they were never alone. For saint and godhood, one needed to build connections. Magic pacts or enough followers to connect through prayers, creating a two-way channel. Most of the time gods granted their power to their followers, while their mana kept their idol strong.

But this connection was so much more. These mana strings would anchor and surround the deities. Shield them from any possible attacks a mere mortal could launch at them. Dissipated any force between followers until it became so insignificant they wouldn't notice.

The more followers a deity had, the stronger this shield and anchor became. Even gods would struggle to overcome these defenses. According to the crystal, no humans, or group of mages could gather enough force to make a dent in them. But there was a way to manipulate these strings. Four, to be exact, and they came in pairs.

The only four spells that could affect a god, displace them or alter these connections. The most difficult and rare one was Banishment.

It exploited these strings and used the deities' mana against them. It ripped a hole through reality and dragged the target through by these strings. Lambert attempted this against me, wanting to trap me in a pocket dimension, but it didn't work. I didn't have enough mana for such a feat, and he used the wrong True Name for the spell.

I benefited from being weak, but now that I heard more about it from the crystal, I relived the situation. My mental resistance crumbled, and with the fairies still near to keep us in check, it was hard to do my research.

The pair, or opposite of Banishment was the Summon. As the name suggested, it summoned the gods to a place, where enough followers and mages gathered. Again, they had to rip a tear through reality and drag their chosen deity through it, even against their will.

It was a simpler spell but had some prerequisites. Not to mention the tremendous amount of mana needed for it. While Banishment used the god's power, for a Summon, mages had to put their heads together to succeed. The crystal couldn't tell me if summoning a banished god was still possible, so I moved on to the next spell.

This pair was Possession and Sealing. The deities used the first to morph their connections around a vessel they wanted to inhabit. I assumed this was how Alexandra moved from one body to the next, but it was hard to tell how I possessed her old one. Once possessed, the body of the god's choosing would host his soul. Ousting them without damaging the host was only possible with one of the other three spells.

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The last one was the opposite: Sealing forced a deity into a vessel, requiring lots of mana, even if less than a Summon. It trapped the deity as long as the seal remained intact, but of course, it alone wouldn't stop them from a rampage.

It would be a minor inconvenience for them unless other runes limited their magic. But with their strength restricted, trapping deities for an extended period became possible. While they weren't trivial, I found the runes in the crystal, but it couldn't explain everything. Still, I felt nothing but thanks for all the research Fenna's mother must have put into this magic stone. It had to be the greatest undertaking in the Magic Academy, and without it, I wouldn't stand a chance.

My brain went into overdrive, thinking about how I could seal this mighty dragon if it came to that. What spell to use for that purpose? The pixies realized my distraction, causing me headaches as my mental defenses weakened. I couldn't focus on everything at once.

The spell I used was mighty simple, I imagined my head as a big atom, with mana swirling around it like electrons. It blocked all attempts to creep inside my mind, but I kept forgetting about it. When I restored my focus, the pressure decreased once more.

Oblivious how long I examined the crystal without a sunset or a sunrise in this place, time lost its meaning. The enormous main gates opened without a warning, urging the others to rush in and see what happened.

I expected some other deity to show up, and it didn't feel much off. I knew very little about all the different gods of this world, but my eyes went wide when I saw the four creatures enter.

The two at the front were nothing out of the ordinary. The castle crawled with minotaurs, but while they ignored us even Ember knew not to provoke them. But seeing the back row, while they were also familiar, was a big surprise.

"P-princess?" I couldn't believe my eyes. And the blue-haired paladin girl was here too. It had been some time since they parted ways from Nateaser, and Elizabeth had a different air around her. A very different one.

"Nati?! Oh, and the shaman too!" The Princess yelled rushing towards us, skipping past the minotaurs. "What are you doing here?"

The shaman she mentioned acted shocked, turning white as clay at the sight of the Crantan royalty. I knew how his senses worked by now, so his reaction suggested a deeper meaning. He didn't say anything though, and I missed my opportunity to answer the Princess.

"I could ask the same." Omerta chirped in, eyeing the newcomers. To my surprise, the minotaurs walked up to us too and spoke the language from outside the dungeon. They bowed, being the first to acknowledge our existence, and introduced themselves.

"We are loyal priests of the graceful Addas. Did you also come from what they call The Surface? You must be the Dragon God's other guests." One of them talked to us in a low, grumbling voice.

"W-we um, yes, he brought us here." I became our party's spokesperson while the others tried to catch up with Cath and the Princess. "But he hasn't talked to us since, and I don't even know how long we've been here."

"Oh, if the Majestic God led you here, that makes you quite special." The other minotaur claimed, his voice much higher pitched. "It is quite rare to see sight of him within this castle, even for us, selected through the Ritual. If we meet him once a week, we can consider ourselves lucky. Are you his followers too?"

I almost said no, but seeing the paladin gesturing behind the bull's back, I choked on the word. The others gave an unconvincing yes in unison, and the beasts offered a tour around the massive halls. We couldn't turn down their offer with the strange tone they used.

"If His Majesty didn't show you to your rooms, we will fix that mistake. You should rest before the next Ritual starts." The one with the deep voice suggested. With so many questions I couldn't keep count, yet unable to ask a single one, they herded us around like a flock of sheep. "This is the dining hall, the throne room is on the far side on the first floor. When you partake in the Ritual, continue down that way to the main chapel of the castle, and the courtyard beyond."

They left us in front of a large, fancy door a few minutes later. Whether it was their intimidating aura or the fairies', we asked no questions before they left.

"What the hell is this ritual they talked about?" Emi came to her senses first, but even she was a bit too late. The paladin only revealed how they walked all day with the minotaurs, but this topic didn't come up.

The door opened to a suite, and gauging the Princess' reaction, it was a big deal even by this world's standards. Her jaw dropped from the common living room if it was the appropriate name. Calling it enormous was an understatement, but everything seemed oversized in this place. Further doors lined both sides, drawing me to themselves, promising a nice bed on the other side. Or at least that's what I hoped, realizing how exhausted I was.

Yes, while I felt excited, confused, and full of fears, first, I was about to pass out. I had no idea how to deal with this situation, or what to expect from it, but the proper bed in the room had an immense gravity. I couldn't think about anything else but throwing myself into it.

As I landed on the luxurious sheets, a peculiar dragon plushie bounced back from it. My eyes were half closed already, but the sight reappeared in my dreams, only a moment later.