"There's a human down there."

As I pointed at the chained mass below, the dragon returned in a steep dive to the courtyard. His wings caused a wind strong enough to push us back from the balcony, and the Princess gasped by my side. We didn't have the chance to catch up with them after most of us passed out from exhaustion. Their previous meeting with the Dragon God sounded traumatizing like ours.

I clenched my fists, realizing I still grasped that dragon plushie from the guest room. I found it on the bed yesterday, though it was a strong word. I fell on it, and I said yesterday, but with no way to measure time, we could only guess how long we'd been here.

The minotaur that brought the girls from Nordhaben woke us up at some point. After a quick breakfast, we found ourselves on this balcony, waiting for their ritual to start. Whatever that meant, we were about to find out. And seeing all those creatures in chains, I expected the worst. Elizabeth shivered by my side, looking for the girl I pointed at, but the green dragon hid her from our sight.

As much as I could see, it was a dark-haired woman with typical Asian characteristics. When we studied the continent's map, it clicked that she was from the Far East, a country called Saipole. The Paladin also grabbed onto something, so as not to get blasted away. Her face remained calm if not even contorted into a glare.

"So that's where she went." She noted, looking at the crowd below us. "Serves her right, I hope they sacrifice her or something."

"You know her?" I was curious, but Cath scoffed.

"That's Princess Aoi, she dragged us into this dungeon in the first place." She explained with palpable disdain in her otherwise pleasant voice. "She deserves whatever will happen to her down there."

"I completely forgot about her." The other Princess noted, wringing her hands. Her eyes fluttered to the side as if she held a separate discussion with someone else. "I expected her to follow us but didn't pay her attention. Those fairies can mess with people's brains so much."

"She um, has a... Let's say, an advisor?" The paladin tried to explain, struggling to find the right words. "And it turns out, that dragon is some sort of a god from the continent, who took over this dungeon."

"Yeah, we heard as much," Omerta noted, keeping an eye on the situation. "We must have come here a day before you, led by none other than Addas, but most of the journey feels blank. I can't remember anything, so you don't have to introduce the pixies."

"You had all this time to build up some defenses, and even have the tools in your staff." Gitaut shook his head, standing at the back of the balcony. Ember and Emi introduced themselves to the humans earlier but kept their distance. My little sister couldn't drag her eyes away from the humans' colorful hairstyles.

The dark purple and blue looked surreal like the shades of the lush jungle vegetation in the dungeon. And they came from the surface, Nordhabe, where they considered it normal. Another flap of the wings pulled me to the present and squeezing the plushie, I watched things unfold. Addas repeated his transformation, taking the form of a human with Arabic features. His shape commanded attention even then, towering over most creatures. He expended a strong enough aura to keep us under pressure this high above the courtyard.

Why did I bring this stuffed toy with me? How did it get here in the first place? It looked like something from my world, although the seams were handmade and crude. It represented a much less intimidating version of the Dragon God. As it turned out, this wasn't the only plushie in our guest rooms. Ember found a cat, and when the minotaur called us to gather, we brought them along without thinking.

Looking at it, I remembered the four spells the crystal taught me and thought about what to do if things got out of hand. They looked like they were about to. The god made all those chains disappear with a flick of his finger. The nervous voices of all the different creatures got much louder.

The human girl in blue looked at us, her eyes narrow but full of fear. I caught Cath's satisfied grin staring back at her, but whatever their history was, I didn't want to see humans die. I could have used that symbol, the crystal planted a clear image of it inside my head. If I painted it on the dragon plushie, I could trap the god inside and save all those innocent lives.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

But it was a tall order, I had nothing to draw with, and the events were about to speed up. A balcony like ours took form on the opposite side of the arena-shaped courtyard. It morphed in front of my eyes, from the solid walls of the old tower. That was the castle's main building, and I spotted the goal of our journey, the dungeon core that we all came for. But it was nothing like I expected.

The centerpiece, because it wasn't a simple stone, was huge. Larger than my head, and emitted a dark glow, almost black, but glistening. It created this unnatural, magical atmosphere that soon overshadowed the entire courtyard. Around it a bunch of crystals in a petal-like formation, pulsating from white to purple. Each was the size of my palms, and they started spinning.

"Would you look at that?" Omerta leaned in closer, attempting to measure the size of it by holding up her finger. "That would be quite the haul. Forget about one magic stone, the whole village could get one."

"And we only have to defeat a god and thousands of monsters to get to it," Gitaut noted, not looking very confident. "At this point, it doesn't seem like we could get away with our lives."

"Hey, you said you are more powerful than Alpha. Figure out something." Omerta shot a glance at him, completely mesmerized by the dungeon core. "What I want to see is what they will do with it. What kind of ritual will they use its power for?"

"They won't use the crystal, they're going to feed it." The Princess noted, then glanced away again, as if waiting for someone to confirm this. "Inside the dungeon, there is no in and out. Whatever dies here, will remain in this realm, their mana and soul sucked up into that crystal. Any new creatures or the expanding landscape will be born from it too. They're about to get sacrificed in a way."

"That sounds like when we tried to charge our stones with mana, but they are doing it on a much larger scale." Ember joined the conversation, holding up her cat plushie. "The only difference is that they didn't seem to be volunteering for the task. Especially not your human friend."

"She's not our friend," Cath commented, and I noticed how the girl in question backed away from the Dragon God. Addas paid no attention to her, his eyes locked onto us, and his smile felt eerie.

"I'll spare you from the first round, but take a good look, and prepare yourselves." His voice reached us, though his lips seldom moved. He waved around in the oval-shaped courtyard. "In a good Cranta-like fashion, let me show you how I gain my most loyal followers. Let the Ritual begin."

With that, walls jutted out from the ground, encompassing and splitting up the entire area. They trapped several monsters inside pockets while raising the humanoid figure above them. He waved around the arena, chanting the whole time.

"Let the best win, and earn the right to serve me. The rest have the privilege to feed their souls to the dungeon, growing the realm even larger. Until it will be ready to rise to the surface!" He opened his arms, and at a magical beat, the monsters went on a rampage. Their fearful and apathetic expressions were gone, replaced by palpable bloodlust. They fought without weapons, using whatever their bodies had to murder each other. They behaved as if this was their only goal in life.

No transition. From the quiet field to the raging inferno of death and destruction, only a moment has elapsed. Their quiet apathy turned into screams of agony, yelling in different tongues. The worst was the sound of the pierced skin, torn muscles, and broken bones. It reminded me of the Elder's attack when her gargoyle wrecked the main square of Nateaser. But this happened on a much larger scale here, and I couldn't do anything about it.

"So it's more of the same," Cath noted, calm at first glance. But her hands gripped the balcony and shook. Her fingertips turned white from the force she exerted. "I guess we will keep getting thrown into arenas to fight for our lives. But as long as we don't have to compete with that thing, we should be all right. What does your Geddu say?"

She glanced at Addas, then at the Princess, nodding towards the arena, as if they had some inside knowledge. Before she could answer, a loud electric buzz filled the air, and I found the blue-robed human in the crowd again.

She used a strange spell to neutralize every creature in her box within the arena. She didn't even break a sweat. If anything, her face felt relieved, and the Dragon God standing on top of the walls finally noticed her. A quick smile appeared lasting no more than a second, showing his satisfaction.

The other battles raged much longer, painting a brutal picture below us. When only one creature remained, the walls collapsed pitting them against other survivors. The pockets kept growing like that, and the Saipole princess cleared hers so fast, that she had some time to rest. When the neighboring walls crumbled, her satisfied grin kept growing. She devastated her fresh opponents in mere seconds too.

"Fine, she ain't half bad." Cath ended up stealing glances at her before Elizabeth replied. "At least we know her powers aren't suppressed. You'll do fine with your aide, and let's hope we won't get pitted against each other right off the bat. The melee will be rough, but I will manage."

"What, you're planning to fight?" I asked, my jaw dropping, still squeezing the plush dragon.

"You have a better idea?" The paladin challenged me.

"I um, I have," I claimed, holding it up for her.