My quest failure message wasn’t as snarky as Lilyth’s but it still hurt.

Quest Cancelled: The Legacy of Hellfire

Type: Racial - Personal

Difficulty: Easy

Description: Due to your acceptance of the patronage of Irmen and the severe deterioration of your relationship with The Sun That Burns No More that resulted from it, all the previous offers and gift promises from the Abyss have been rescinded.

Still, good riddance.

‘Okay… what just happened?’ Caei asked.

‘Best I can tell the Sunny motherfucker wanted to banish us… somewhere we would have died.’ Lilyth guessed in a dead voice. ‘Then this Madness thing intercepted us and put us here. Ereshkigal did the same… same thing when I first ended up here.’

‘Ah,’ Savri sighed, clearly still in a daze.

‘Don’t worry, Sav,’ I reassured her. ‘You’ve been… through a lot.’

‘That's the understatement of the millennium,’ the demon said with a forced smile. ‘Why would Lo… the Sun want to kill me?’

‘You knew too much,’ Lilyth shrugged. ‘Or, it was some sort of sick game. Or both. Or neither.’

Suddenly, my girlfriend staggered and collapsed to her side holding her left arm.

‘Lily!’ Caei shouted and ran over to her, with Sav, who snapped out of her shock, close on her heels.

I forgot Lilyth was also nearly killed by a god. And she somehow wounded him.

I quickly followed the healers and saw that Lilyth had nasty-looking burns on her left arm.

‘Got splattered with his blood. Other than that, I guess I am just tired.’

Caei motioned to me and took me to the side while Sav started healing Lilyth's wounds.

‘I don’t think it’s “just fucking tired”,’ she whispered. ‘In the past… what… half an hour there was an assassination attempt against her AND then the mess with the Sun happened. She’s not fine. We need to get out of here quickly.’

‘I don’t think that's possible,’ I sighed. ‘Still, We should take a moment to gather our wits.’

We returned to Savri who was almost done with Lilyth.

‘How is she?’

‘Physically - she’s mostly fine,’ the demon replied. ‘I think so, at least. Burns from divine blood are outside my area of expertise. Or anyone’s really. She’ll likely have scars there that even her regenerative abilities won’t be able to fix. Mentally though… I don’t know.’

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘And how are you doing? You were just thrown out of your home. And nearly killed.’

‘I think I am still processing it. I will need a stiff drink soon though. To confirm: can I stay with you if… when we get out of here?’

‘We would never leave you alone. Not after this.’

‘Thanks,’ she smiled and then looked me over with a furrowed brow. Then, can I talk with you in private about something while I remember?’

We walked to the edge of the platform and Savri whispered to me.

‘So… I’ve been wondering… You three are together, yes?’

‘Yes,’ I replied, confused. ‘Is that a problem?’

Savri raised her hands in an apologetic position.

‘No. No. Don’t worry, Akster. Not my business. Prefer men myself. What I want to ask is… Lilyth can shift down below, yes?’

‘Yes,’ I confirmed, remembering the fun the three of us had just a few hours before.

‘Have you been doing this with her for a long time?’

‘No. Today was our first time. I’m not sure I follow, though.’

‘Let me be straight then - are you taking any protective measures?’

‘Against wha… ‘ I began, but then it hit me. ‘Oh.’

Savri laughed.

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‘Don’t worry. I can teach you a spell to ensure you don’t get any unwanted passengers, and…’

She touched my stomach in the rough area of my womb. I nodded. There was a green flash.

‘There. That should take care of it.’

‘Thank you,’ I blushed.

‘Don’t mention it.’

We rejoined Caei and Lily who were just sitting there huddled together. I joined them and Sav just sat near us.

After a few minutes, Lily suddenly spoke softly.

‘I think we should get going. I don’t trust this platform.’

‘Worried it will fall down?’ Sav asked, alarmed.

‘Yeah…’

We all sprung to our feet and turned to the bridge of light.

Lilyth stopped us with a gesture.

‘Caei? Can you carry us over on your disk?’

She silently cast the spell. It was getting crowded with four people on it. When we were nearing the door Lilyth stopped us again. She examined the door and frowned when she looked at the hinges.

‘Of course, it’s a pull door…’ the slime muttered and turned to Caei. ‘Lower us to just above the bridge. Aki, you are the fastest. Open the door. The rest of you get ready to jump.’

Caei looked at me for confirmation. I gave her a slight nod.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t tall enough to comfortably reach the handle. So the honour fell to Caei who was the tallest of us. She opened the door, revealing a dark stone corridor on the other side. The bridge immediately started flickering.

Lilyth pushed Caei inside the corridor and waited for us to jump inside. Then she leapt herself. Just as her feet touched the stone the bridge disappeared and the platform plummeted to the strange liquid below. We all collapsed to the floor.

‘How… did you know?’ Sav asked.

‘Two reasons,’ Lil responded sadly. ‘One, the message I got from the Madness thing. In English, the word “you” is both used for singular and plural. At first, I assumed it was the latter. But… that room just screamed “trap” to me, because I’ve seen stuff like this before. Meaning… most likely that room and maybe the whole delve was designed to fuck with me.’

‘Remember, you are not alone here,’ Caei said. ‘We’ll figure it out together.’

‘I hope so,’ Lilyth sighed heavily. ‘I really hope so.’

I could see she was barely holding it together but then Sav got up and leaned over Lilyth.

‘ON YOUR FEET, SOLDIER!’ she shouted with a ferocity I didn't think possible from the usually nice medic.

Lilyth, to my surprize, listened.

‘WE ARE IN A SITUATION THAT REQUIRES ALL OF US TO BRING OUR A GAME! YOU WILL HAVE TIME TO FEEL SORRY FOR YOURSELF WHEN YOU ARE DEAD! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?’

Lilyth gave her an energetic salute.

‘Good,’ Sav said. ‘Aki, I am taking the overall command over this shitshow until we get out of here.’

‘Yes, Ma’am,’ I said.

‘DON’T CALL ME “MA’AM”, RECR…’ Savri started shouting at me but caught herself and laughed. ‘ Sorry, Akster. It will take me a while to stop being Master Sergeant Savri Adzhenair.’

‘I don’t think you should, Sav,’ Caei suddenly said. ‘At least not in situations like this.’

‘Yeah, I think Sav is the one here with the most combat experience,’ Lilyth shrugged. ‘Your decision though, Aki.’

I nodded.

‘Having an experienced battle leader does make sense.’

‘There is also another factor in favour of Savri,’ Lil added. ‘I don’t think she’s a frontliner. I mean I’m one, and so are you, babe. Caei mostly fights from range, I think. So Sav coordinating us doesn't cut our offensive power.’

I remembered the hospital. Lilyth was right about that.

‘You'd be surprised how good a swordswoman I am,’ said Savri. ‘But yes. These days I mostly heal.’

Caei then asked:

‘Would it make sense for me to focus on learning more offensive magic then?’

‘Can’t see why it would hurt,’ I said. ‘I suggest we divide any new runes we find the following way: Lilyth gets Air and Shadow, I get Water, Sav Life and that leaves Caei with Fire, Earth and whatever else.’

‘Caei can get Life runes too’ Savri said. ‘I know most of the spells I need.’

‘Personally, I’d like to request that if we ever find any Light runes we fucking destroy them,’ Lilyth said unexpectedly but not unreasonably, as I still could remember how she reacted to just touching a scroll of Light magic.

Nobody protested the request.

‘What are your orders then, Master Sergeant?’ my slimy girlfriend asked.

‘Let’s first look at our resources. Lilyth, I know you have those daggers of yours, do you have anything else?’

Oh. I forgot we lost everything. This will be hard. Good that Sav is here.

‘Not right now. Still, almost two months until I regain access to my spells.’

‘Noted. You are on point, then. Aki?’

‘I have my Abyssal Spark and Lesser Abyssal Bolt abilities.’

I was maintaining the former out of habit now. It barely consumed any mana these days.

‘Caei?’

‘Of immediately useful stuff? Blood Lance and Flame Tongue. Plus basic healing magic, but we’ve got you for that now I think.’

‘Don’t have much in terms of offensive magic, though, Sav confirmed. ‘Mostly healing and support spells. Aki: your primary task will be to cover Lilyth with the Abyssal Bolt. Caei: you will stay back and throw Blood Lances at other targets. We’re in a delve so hopefully some weapons will drop.’

‘What’s a delve, anyway?’ Lilyth asked. ‘I remember hearing Ereshkigal mention these before.’

‘Ah. Forgot you are new here. Delves are like dungeons except rather than having naturally existing monsters they have ones that are basically magical constructs. Once the creature is killed the magic can transform into items. No one knows how they work and why. They tend to “appear” in random abandoned locations and are considered a good, if very risky, source of experience points and loot. Destroying the anchor that maintains the delve also tends to have good rewards.’

‘Pretty nifty,’ Lilyth said.

‘Any other questions?’ Sav asked.

When it turned out we had none, she simply said:

‘Okay, kids! Move out!’