‘LILYTH!’ she shouted in unison with Caeileera, as they watched their companion fall to her death along with the monster.

Last thing Aki saw of her girlfriend before she disappeared in darkness was her looking back at them, peace in her eyes.

Then she was gone.

‘You have wings!’ A ray of hope appeared in Aki’s heart. ‘You can save her!’

I… I can't…’ Caeileera sobbed, helplessly, snuffing the fire out. ‘My wings… they… they are not strong enough.’

That admission only made both of them cry harder. They embraced themselves for comfort and sat there mourning their friend.

Level 44 Greater Corrupted Darhun has been slain

You have earned 1466 experience points (2316/3000 total experience points progress to level 6)

Notice: You took part in killing a monster 39 levels above you. (Though the ground did most of the work.) You have received 1 perk point for this achievement (Current Number of Perk Point: 2)

So… that was it. If the monster was dead then so was Lilyth.

‘N-no…’ Caeileera said, voicing Aki’s feelings.

The girl thought her heart would break. Lilyth promised her she wouldn't leave her… Why did she have to do this? Maybe they could have somehow beaten the monster together. She didn't care about the stupid experience and the stupid perk point. She would gladly go back to level zero if it meant she could have her friend back.

Wait… the experience points got split three ways. That meant…

‘Caei!’ she exclaimed. ‘We must find a way down?’

‘Wh-Why? Do you want to bury her?’

‘No… the experience. See how much you got.’

‘What does this have to do with any… Oh.’

Caeileera started laughing.

‘She did it! The crazy slime somehow did it!’

‘Yes,’ Aki confirmed joyfully. ‘We need to hurry though. She could be hurt badly.’

Caei nodded and got up, wiping her tears on her cuff.

‘Let’s go then.’

‘Can you fly us down with your disk?’

Caei frowned sadly.

‘No. The chasm is too deep.’

Spell description appeared in front of Aki’s face.

Spell: Floating Disk

Type: Gravity - Utility

Level: 10 (74% progress to level 11)

Effect: Creates a floating hard light disk of up to 2 metres in radius that allows the caster to transport people or objects. Can be maintained

Casting time: 1 second

Note: Disk must remain up to 2 metres from a surface

‘If I cast it here and we tried to descend using it we would fall,’ Caeileera explained. ‘As you saw, I have limited options of doing things the spell wasn’t designed for, but it comes at a cost. That time I used it to cut the tentacle? You know how long I kept the spell going while Lilyth was in that strange room and we had our… discussion?’

Aki nodded.

‘I could have maintained it twice as long and it still wouldn’t come near to the amount of mana I spent on that cut. Me trying to slow down our descent would drain me out of mana in seconds.’

Boy, aren’t you useless, Aki bit back a retort.

She knew Caeileera was trying, but , oh my, was she disappointed with her.

‘Let’s find a way down, then,’ Aki said instead.

I woke up on a cloud floating in what seemed to be an infinite blue sky, if it even could have been considered a sky, given how there appeared to be no ground in sight. Funnily enough, it looked to be a bright day, despite there being no sun anywhere.

‘Ummm… hello?’ I repeated quite unsure what was happening.

Did I die when I hit the ground? Was Ereshkigal just fucking with me? Like I wouldn’t put it past her to create an image of a fluffy cloud heaven. Then again, wouldn’t surviving less than an hour on the job put me on her shit list? So if anything I should be in fire and brimstone hell.

Suddenly, a massive dark tornado started to form in front of me and a strong wind began to buffet me. I tried to cover my face, but it was to no avail as the wind was too strong. I saw that the funnel developed a huge head and a pair of disembodied hands.

So not the afterlife, then’ I started to cower in fear before the great avatar of the storm.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Out of the blue, there was a girly giggle and someone exclaimed with barely contained glee:

‘Ha! Gotcha!’

The wind that was threatening to push me from the cloud I was on, abated as quickly as it appeared, and the great storm elemental dissipated. In its place hovered a beautiful elven woman dressed in an all-white suit and a blue shirt. Her dark blue eyes had tiny lightning bolts flashing occasionally inside, and instead of hair she had an ever-shifting cloud formed into a pixie cut.

‘Sorry…’ she said. ‘I really couldn’t resist messing with you, honey.’

With a flick of her wrist the elf conjured a small cloud almost right in front of me and sat cross legged on it. I noticed that the cloud was positioned at such a height that her shapely boobs would be right in front of my eyes. I doubted this was a coincidence. Especially, since the elf was within arms reach of me. I looked up at her face.

‘My name is Ter’ius,’ The goddess continued. ‘Or actually…’

She extended her hand and touched me on the nose. I felt energy coursing through my body.

‘Boop! As far as you are concerned, my name is Nyx! Much better. Ere was right, you Earthlings have such cool names for your gods.’

I looked at her in horror.

‘Wait.. are you guys actually screwing with the translator trait?’

‘Ding, ding, ding!’ “Nyx” giggled. ‘Correct! Ere mentioned you were one smart slime, Lilyth. And there is nothing you can do about it, too’

‘T.. T…’I stammered to say her actual name in clear defiance, but couldn’t so I sighed in defeat. ‘Nyx it is then. I must say I don’t appreciate this.’

‘I imagine you wouldn’t. But imagine being stuck with a name some jackass thought-up ten thousand years ago and spread around as your actual one. So having even one person calling you by a name you actually want is a relief.’

‘Ereshkigal did mention something about deadnames before’

‘That she did. You must be wondering where you are, cutie. You did swear to serve me, and I need to stake my claim on you, anyway. Can’t have Ere have all the fun with you.’

She touched me on the nose again with a “Boop” and a message appeared in front of my eyes.

Nyx is now your Patron Deity

‘Uhh… won’t Ereshkigal mind? I am her Paladin and all.’

‘No. We hashed out those details when she came here to pick up that rune. We’ve agreed to have split custody of you. It makes no practical difference as far as you are concerned, though her errands will usually be of higher priority than mine.’

I stared at her with incredulity.

‘Don’t worry,’ Nyx smiled. ‘Those are going to be F-U-N, unlike the ones she will send you on. Whenever she had her holy knights she would have them clear some dreadful dusty tombs of undead and deal with Necromancers, and such. Mine are so much better! Seeking forbidden knowledge, solving crises, getting cookies from that one bakery I like. And hey, you will get all sorts of perks and benefits from both me and Ere thanks to this arrangement. In fact…’

She put her hand on my forehead. More energy flowed into my body and another message popped up in my vision:

New Ability has been acquired: Swiftness of the Wind

Type: Divine - Air

Level: 1 (0% progress to level 2)

Effects: Increases the user’s speed (level dependent). Costs mana to activate and maintain.

Duration: 1 minute

Note: Insufficient knowledge of Air Arcana to utilise the ability to its full potential.

That was pretty neat, though . Nyx must have seen something on my face, or maybe she just read my mind because she said:

‘For now, focus on surviving that deathtrap you are in and dealing with La… Lee… that Sanguine dude. Be sure to find some time to play around with your new ability, too. It’s not much right now, but it’s something. I’ll contact you once I have something for you to do. Also just as a warning, what you did while you were falling and my help… maaaay have had some effects on your body, but would you look at the time! Off you go!’

Before I could react, she jumped off the cloud, hugged me and snapped her fingers.

I woke up lying face down on a rocky surface in intense pain all over my body. I could hear the flow of water somewhere nearby and there was a rancid smell in the air.

‘I fucking hate this place,’ I muttered as I tried to get up, but this only made my pain worse.

So I laid there until I felt strong enough to move. I slowly pushed my elf to my knees and sat on them. It wasn’t the most comfortable of positions, but it let me get a look around. The ravine I landed in was fairly cramped. There was a small stream flowing through the middle of it, on the end of which laid the badly mangled corpse of the Darhun. Its stomach burst open from the impact, causing its liquified intestines to spill out.

Probably the source of the smell.

The damage indicator in the corner of my attention caught my attention. It was deep crimson and there were two icons underneath it: a skull and a red elemental symbol of air. I summoned their descriptions.

Status: Critical Damage

Effects:

* Physical attributes are reduced by 75% until healed

* Any further damage may result in death

Status: Elemental Contamination - Air

Level: 3 - Severe

Effects:

* Irreversible changes to body structure have occurred

* Increased effectiveness of Air Arcana-based spells, abilities and traits

* Decreased effectiveness of other Elemental Arcana-based spells, abilities and traits

* Unable to use Earth Arcana-based spells, abilities and traits

Note: The level of contamination will revert to 2 - Moderate 13 days, 23 hours and 45 minutes.

So that’s what she meant. Something to look forward to when I get a mirror. Oh… I could try that stream. But first…

I summoned my backpack. I left it in Löwe’s lab. There was no need to carry it with me If I could just summon it at will.

Who’s Will, though? I chuckled to myself.

Wincing at my every move I took off my cloak, armour and the sword scabbard. I frowned when I saw the Blade of the Black Rose wasn’t there.

Oh. I had it out.

I tried summoning it but it didn’t respond.

Huh.

So I just packed my empty scabbard along with the rest of the gear. I was in no shape to fight, so might as well lighten my load. I would leave the backpack here, as I could always resummon it, but I’d have to look for the sword, however, as the weapon not responding was likely a bad sign. I dragged myself to my feet and limped to the stream. I washed my face in the water, but I could not see my reflection. I remembered you needed light for that and I was only seeing via Darksight.

It’s weird how quickly I got used to that.

With a shrug, I looked around. I saw something lying in the distance upstream. I tried walking there, but felt dizzy and fell face first into the water. I quickly rolled to my side, so as to not drown. Once the chasm stopped spinning I got up, and using the wall as support I limped over to the mysterious object. As I feared, it turned out to be the Blade of the Black Rose, or what was left of it anyway. The weapon broke into multiple pieces, and was probably unsalvageable, as no description was popping. Luckily, I kept the other sword so I wouldn’t be defenceless. Yeah. Being armed would be important, as I doubted any help was coming. If it wasn’t for Nyx I likely wouldn’t have survived this, so I hoped that Caei and Aki just tried to leave the place rather than do anything stupid like looking for my body.

The incline of the chasm was mild, but I still didn’t feel like climbing it so I turned around and started walking downstream.