As the Behemoth was smashing its way through the floor, Laachersain noticed something shimmering in the corner of his eye. He turned in its direction and saw that where previously was the featureless rockshelf leading to the broken dungeon wall there now was an elaborate candle-lit chamber with a golden statue of a woman in the middle. She was dressed in tattered ornamental robes with a hood covering her face, and there was a pair of skeletal wings sprouting out of her back. In her left hand, she was holding a pair of scales, and in the other a mask she was raising towards her head, or maybe taking it off.

No, Laachersain decided. She’s definitely putting it on.

He had no idea where that certainty came from, or how he somehow, despite the distance and poor lighting, was dead certain it was one of the masks that the Sanguine wore. His gaze shifted back to the scales and his heart froze. Laachersaincould have sworn they were in a neutral position before. Why was one side now lower than the other? He also felt the statue looking at him intently.

Then he heard the Behemoth hit the floor again. The sudden sound made him jump and turn away. He looked at the statue again but it was gone, along with the whole shrine. Instead, once again, there was the rock shelf there again. The whole incident lasted what… a couple of seconds at most? Why did it feel so much longer then? And where did the statue come from, to begin with? Did he just imagine it?

Another loud thump brought his attention back to reality. He would have time to worry about hallucinations later. Cracks started appearing in the place where the Behemoth was hitting the floor. Laachersain smiled. Maybe this whole mess was salvageable after all. Then all his hope turned into despair as the floor started crumbling way too fast. He tried to recall the Behemoth but it was too late. The floor under the lower one collapsed and the creature disappeared into the resultant hole. He rushed over to the edge of it to see what happened, but when he heard the loud crack as it hit the ground somewhere deep below them, he knew there was no point. It was over before it even began. Still, he had to see.

The Behemoth’s body was impaled on remnants of some broken thing maybe seventy metres below them. As a credit to the creature’s immense resilience, it was still trying to get up, but Laachersain could see it was futile, as its spine was broken. Then many somethings in the pillar began to howl in a way that made Laachersain’s skin crawl. Were there monsters in the structure? How did the Slime and her party make it past them then?

‘That’s another Behemoth you got killed, worm,’ Laachersain heard a voice from behind him.

He turned around and saw one of the fully armoured figures standing there. He thought that was Feddrist, but Laachersain wasn’t sure. Feddrist and Esstaardan were retainers of Crimson Vicar Tirrleena. She assigned them to Laach to watch over her investment.

‘Our Lady will hear about this,’ possibly-Feddrist continued. ‘Pray to lord Blood that whatever you find here is enough to placate here. If not… well…’

The way the armoured man trailed off promised severe consequences. Laachersain knew that there likely was nothing on Dwynveia that could save him. In the past year, he had squandered so many resources that he likely was finished among the Sanguine. He would be lucky if being stripped of his mask was his only punishment.

‘Come, Esstaardan,’ the this-time-definitely-Feddrist indicated from near the original location of the portal. ‘Let us return to the Badlands.’

A glass pyramid glowing bright blue appeared in his hand. As the light within it extinguished, a portal opened and, without saying another word, Feddrist and Esstaardan stepped through it taking all of the hunters with them, even the two that were part of the Laachersain’s flock.

He fell to his knees in utter despair as the hole in reality closed. As Laachersain was contemplating diving into the hole that Behemoth made and just ending it, he felt a calloused hand on his shoulder.

‘Nothing says we have to return to the Badlands, my friend,’ Veersavil said in a hoarse voice.

Laachersain looked back at the robed man, feeling tears flow down his face.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Caeileera decided to stay here. Why shouldn’t we?’

Exile?

‘Won’t they come looking for us?’

‘Let them come,’ Veersavil shrugged. ‘They’ll have to find us first. I have no doubt Tirrleena will do her best, but Dwynveia is a large place.’

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

A possibility of survival outweighs a certain death, Laachersain decided.

‘Why would you join me?’

‘You saved my life,’ Veersavil replied forcefully. ‘Where you go, I follow.’

Despite himself, Laachersain smiled.

‘Together till the end then, old friend?’

‘Together till the end.’

Deirdee was still on the first floor of the weird structure when the howling began. The pungent smell she noticed upon entering the place started getting stronger then too. Deirdee wondered what the loud crash that precipitated this all was. What did that idiot Laachersain do? Still, there was a hope that the ruckus would mask movements from her quarry.

Deirdee drew her long knife from the holster hidden on the inside of the bandolier. The sounds came from somewhere below her, but it always paid to be careful when unknown threats appeared, especially since finding Caeileera and her “friends” would not be easy in this maze of rooms.

It took her several minutes, but she finally found a staircase and started descending it. She passed through several levels when she saw movement in the corner of her eye on one of them.

The Slime? One of the howling things?

She didn't know, and the difference was mostly academic, anyway. She could not leave her back exposed. So, she activated her Silent Step ability, crouched, and snuck through the entrance.

There was nothing visible there. Suddenly, she felt something drop on her from above. Claws dug into her shoulders. Before she could do anything about it, she once again saw movement in the corner of her right eye and something tackled her from the right and knocked her to the ground. Her knife fell out of her hand and clattered on the ground. She once again felt something sharp tear into the flesh of her shoulders. She tried to knock away the assailant with her wings, but they wouldn’t listen to them. Something heavy was blocking them. Her body was rocked by a strong movement followed by the most intense pain of her life, as something was torn away from her back.

My… my… wing.

Then, there was another flash of agony from her back. This time from the other side.

Deirdee screamed.

‘What was that thing anyway?’ I asked, looking at the weird monster. ‘I only got question marks on the kill notification.’

‘I don’t know, ‘ Caeileera said. ‘Looks like some sort of a ... tooth… horror… thing.’

Her gaze went blank, which I started to associate with viewing the interface.

‘Huh,’ Caeileera simply said. ‘I just got this notification.’

She shared it with us.

Name: Tooth Horror accepted.

I pulled up the kill notification again.

Level 5 Lesser Tooth Horror has been slain.

You have earned 166 experience points (2332/3000 total experience points progress to level 6)

‘I don’t like how “lesser” implies there are “greater” versions of those things,’ I shuddered and kicked the corpse.

Then to my great, but still very pleasant, surprise Aki walked up to Caeileera and said:

‘I think we’ve started on the wrong foot. I apologise for how I have acted. I just felt…’

Aki paused for a moment looking for the best word.

‘Jealous?’ Caeileera suggested, not unkindly.

‘Jealous,’ the demonborn girl agreed. ‘It’s just tha…’

‘Don’t worry about it, Aki,’ Caei interrupted her. ‘I know what it is like to feel alone. And it’s not like I am blameless in this… debacle.’

Then, I think hell must have frozen over because they hugged.

They might have noticed me just staring at them because Caei quickly said:

‘You are turning blue again, honey.’

‘Yeah. No dirty thoughts, Lilyth,’ Aki laughed.

I wasn't having any, but I just huffed, turned around and started putting on my armour.

Still… I am happy they made up. For now. We’ll see how long this lasts.

The last thing I had to put on was the sword scabbard. It felt bad I couldn't use the fun rabbit head one from Ereshkigal. Then a thought occurred to me…

Would a divine gift only work for one sword?

So, I tried sheathing the sword and lo’ and behold the scabbard changed its shape to fit the inscribed sword. I couldn’t help but think that it did function like a certain part of female anatomy, especially given how phallic swords were, but luckily my friends spared me the commentary.

Fully armed and armoured, I turned to girls who were whispering something among themselves:

‘Shall we go and see what horrors await us here?’

But before Aki and Caei could answer, we heard a woman’s scream of agony come from somewhere above us. It sounded like the female assassin from before.

‘Should we go help her?’ I asked, genuinely torn on the subject.