"The Divine Court is the religion worshipping the deities called Aspects but depending on the region their number or their order of importance changes. From Theocracy which most people belive that Aspect of Light, Citranus is the most important of the Aspects. To the rural Catalina where belief in Corin Aspect of Life the most."
-Extract from "On History and Culture of Edor."
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Iris and Kia looked at each other and silently went into the cave followed by the dead goblin. The cave's floor was littered with bones and rotting meat, filling the air with a putrid smell assaulting the elf's nose. Sounds of goblin shouts and snarls bounced off the rough stone walls of the cave instantly making it feel like the pair were surrounded. As the two went deeper into the cavern, the leather boot on Iris's feet stepped on the bone littering the ground causing a loud crushing sound to reverberate throughout the cave.
"W-wat wat dat?" A high husky voice said.
"Go cek!" A deeper voice said.
"Me me?" A different voice answered.
"Yes dum!" The deep voice said followed by a sound of a slap.
As the girls listen to the goblin arguing a small hairy goblin turned a corner in front of them. "Bad dead things!" He screamed before the silvery spear impaled him. More voices came from the depths of the cave after the gurgles from the terrorized goblin bounced off the walls.. When the girls turned the corner from the goblin came, they saw four goblins standing with weapons ready. Upon seeing the two, one of the goblins with a rusted helmet too big for his head started to shout and kick the other goblin urging them to attack.
One of the goblins charged Iris with uncertainty in his eyes, only for her spear to come out of the other side radiating a soft glow tainted with crimson. The remaining goblin charged at two with desperation seeing it as the only way of survival.
The elf shot her left arm forward causing a white light to appear on her open palm, which expanded in a split second sending the goblins across the cavern.
When Iris was about to finish the remaining goblins, noise of more goblins streaming out of a tunnel behind them reached the elven ears.
Five more dark hairy creatures rushed from the tunnel trying to surprise the attackers. The stone walls of the cave turned red as the newly arrived goblins were bisected by a dark magical edge which appeared from thin air.
Iris turned her attention back to the enemies in front of her. Two goblins struggled to stand while the third sat still with blank stare blood dripping from his mouth. She made a short work of the stragglers. The elf then shifted her gaze between the two tunnels leading out of the chamber. The distanced sounds of many feet hitting the rough stone floor accompanied by shouts and panicked yells got closer with every second passed.
The two stood still awaiting the wave of goblins. Goblins poured from the tunnel in front of Iris. She was forced to casting magic often to deal with the numerous goblins.
As the tide of goblins continued and the chamber filled with dozens of corpses, goblins bigger than any before, wearing better armour and weapons appeared from the tunnel in front of Iris.
[Inspect]
[Goblin Boss Level 26-31]
{Chief of a goblin tribe}
"Dum dead thing, coming here to steal my shinies!" The goblin boss roared and charged at the The elf accompanied by his bodyguards.
Iris steadied her weapon and trusted her weapon low, the goblin bodyguard lowered his shield but Iris retreated her weapon and trusted towards his face filling with fear. Blood streamed out of his eyes socket as his body became lifeless. She jumped back dodging a slash from the boss's curved sword. The bloody tip of the spear accelerated forward missing its mark as the goblin boss stepped out of the way and riposted with his weapon. Iris felt her arm mutely burn as the curved sword dug its way through her flesh. She reflexively gritted her teeth and hit the goblin with the back end of her spear sending him stumbling back.
"[Mana Light]!" The elf shouted producing a blinding light and trusting where she predicted the boss's body was. A feeling a wave of exhaustion came over Iris.
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She felt her weapon travelling through flesh and upon regaining the ability to see somewhat she saw the boss on the ground with her spear sticking from his belly. "Please..!" He yelped before she drove her spear deeper. She quickly pulled it out to drive it through another goblin who tried to attack her, stomping her boot on the boss's throat in the process. The boss tried to put his arm between the blood soaked heel and his face but it was fruitless. Cracking noise caused the goblins to stop as thick oily blood pooled around their bosses head, white bone sticking out where the wrist should had met the forearm.
"Run run!"
"Boss dead by dead things!
Shouts of panic and fear fill the cave as the remaining goblins trample on each other trying to escape. Iris looked at her forearm seeing her wound already healed itself. She waited a bit ensuring that no hidden goblin tried to attack her before letting out a tired sigh, feeling a unnatural exhaustion set upon her.
"Everything all right?" A voice came from behind her before ice cold feeling pierced her clothes as her saviour touched her.
"Yes, just feeling a bit tired." She turned around trying to not look drained.
Looking pass the necromancer Iris saw a bloody remains of goblins. Kia's side of the cavern could have been only called a site of a massacre as walls of goblin corpses blocked the tunnels while shreds of brush like fur littered the floor appearing like a particularly gruesome carpet. Looking again at the cause of the butchery, Kia herself was covered in blood giving her the eerie visage of a death as the blood dripped down from the tips of her pearly fingers and her eyes glowed brightly in the half twilight.
"You sure?" The crimson figure approached Iris, appearing more as a shadowy demon then a sweet innocent girl which entered the cave.
"I should be saying this." The elf gently stroked the once porcelain white cheeks of Kia with her thumb, receiving a strangely alluring smile from the girl. Her eyes glowed even more with blueish light which disappeared as fast as it appeared.
The corpses around them began to burst with blue fire rampeging through their bodies rose to their feet and began to pour deeper into the cave with renewed screams reaching their ears.The necromancer seemingly not ready to give pardon to the hopeless goblins. Iris frowned at the undead feeling useless but the otherwordly exhaustion plaguing her causing each of her limbs to feel blank and her mind clouding with thick mental fog felt her body tilt forward.
"Good job," The realesded monster with long black hair matching the elf's, whispered as she caught Iris.
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Iris found herself laying against a tree when she woke up. "Agh." She lets out a grunt when the sun shines directly into her sensitive eyes while trying to sit up. She glanced around seeing the stream and the cave entrance on her left but when she looked right she saw Kia laying on her side close, breathing gently having fallen asleep. Her skin was covered in dried-up blood, unlike her pristine black dress which remain clean.
"Hey." Iris shook Kia.
She in turn hummed her sleepy response.
"What you think you doing?" The elf complained as she gain scanned the forest around them.
At the tone of the elf, the girl turned curiously around. Unaware if there was still danger around the risen listened for any signs of life but the state the girl was in caused the former slave to methodically fuming from her ears unable to speak to her saviour while she was in such a pitiable state.
"Stand up, we have to clean you up." Iris stood up and dragged the shocked girl.
The elf draged Kia to the stream and began to scrub the blood from the girl's arm. "Stop! I can do it myself, Iris." She huffd and struggled from Iris's grip.
"No, you should have cleaned yourself when we left the cave, how could you leave the filthy blood on your beautiful skin." Kia still struggled a bit but eventually resigned herself to faith and sat still in the water while the annoying elf worked hard to bring her to a bearable state.
"So what happened after I passed out?" The elf asked while cleaning Kia's back, unsure how long had it been since the fight.
"You passed out from mana exhaustion and I finished dealing with the goblins." She spoke. "You should be more careful with how you use your magic. Mana to undead is not only used for spells but also to keep our bodies functioning. Its used for everything." She turns around to look at Iris. "Maybe want me to teach you when we have free time how to control it better?"
"Sure I would love that." The elf peeled her gaze from Kia's back and looked her in the eyes. "By the way what did you with the undead?"
"They stay in the cave, why you ask?"
"We have to ensure that no more goblins will crawl out of that cave so we would have to put everything to the torch including the bodies."
"Aa." Kia nodded.
Iris resumed her work and slowly progressed with the cleaning of every blood-stained on Kia's body.
"Kia."
"Finished?"
"No, but I will have to take off your dress." The elf said.
"Sure,... Iris?" She was about to take off her dress which she always wore when she stopped and frowned at the elf.
"Yes?"
"You are staring." The girl said turning her blushing face from the elf. She wore such an innocent expression that the foolish elf almost though it was the girl's first time feeling embarrassment.
"Oh sorry, I was just thinking of something." The elf quickly exited the water and walked away, her face burning with the embarrassment of her action.
The Risen looked down and saw her clothes being partially covered in blood and with Kia's size, bloody hand marks smeared on her right side walked downstream and started to undress. She walked into the clear waters of the stream colouring it red. Iris cleaned her body the best she could in the small stream and began to wash her clothing.
When she finished and got herself dressed, Iris walked to their camp avoiding looking where Kia was.
The elf opened her backpack to retrieve a towel and saw that the tent was stuffed unevenly in the bag with a bloody mark on it.