VII.

Madoka tore away at the Knotting strands as if their numinous lights were weakened twine and dove into the darkness with Audrey in tow. The booms of trees crashed down thunderously upon the rumbling maw's opening as a foetid hatch. Like a bier of branches, the daylight was lost to the girls underneath it. Madoka landed on her feet, and buckled to her knees when she caught her princess.

Audrey panted heavily after being set down, though Madoka did not know whether her breathlessness was from the chaos outside or the heavy blackness that smothered them like a damp roughspun blanket. The reckoning from the pit finally ceased, as if it was aware that it has swallowed its chosen prey— them.

"Gah, why does it keep getting worse?" Audrey complained.

There was nothing heard but the heavy breathing from the two of them.

"You tell me," Madoka rubbed her eyes, only to make the phosphenes swirl more intensely against the dark.

"Should I blast ourselves outta here and call it a day?" Audrey casted a small flame above her finger, but gave out a disdained pout. "Black manas. Similar to the ones in the palace. Be on guard."

"It's all your fault," Madoka muttered.

"Yeah," Audrey sighed. "I know."

"And I hate that you don't... nevermind," Madoka truly did not like feeling guilty after casting blame on her princess.

"What?" Audrey asked. "Should I destroy the trees or not? This dungeon is optional."

Madoka was about to approve of her destructive choice for once but a chill ran up her skin. Kind gods, she realized that they were not alone down here. Who knew what lurked deeper within. Audrey's fire flickered and waved in the wind, but her eyes were suddenly fixated on the walls of this wretched place.

"There's many... tunnels in this place?" She drew a bigger light, revealing many openings before them. The maw split into many throats of dirt and roots. "No way..."

Audrey's light revealed to Madoka that the walls were black and thorny roots. They were just like the evil ones back in Fiara's capital and Palace. As her eyes adjusted, there were shattered pathways and a faint glow within each of the tunnels.

"Thin pathways, almost too small to fit on," Audrey mused but her eyes widened in a sudden realization. "This must be Henry's old home!"

"Its name is Grob," Madoka corrected her. Or was Grob, she silently added. Audrey kicked up a twig and hurled it into one of the tunnels, but nothing happened. "We should find those adventurers if we are to explore this forsaken place."

"I'm... okay, I think," Audrey flinched from the unseen manas in the air. "We just have to explore a spooky dungeon with evil magic roots growing all over the place. What could possibly go wrong?"

"A lot of things, actually," Madoka supposed. She examined the black roots and contemplated their origin. Could it be...?

"Well, in videogame logic, we always hug right!"

Audrey pulled out her infinitesimal, tiny light and turned towards the rightmost tunnel. Their fate would be sealed once they go in. Still, the princess stepped forth and her magical lantern bobbed against the darkness weakly, but remained laden with intention. Madoka let her lead through the cramped spaces, but decided to get in front of her as soon as there was enough room for her to butt in ahead.

The tunnel widened and light poured in from the end of its path, eventually unfolding into an ancient grand stairway, with roots permeating in between their sprawling descent. Audrey gasped. Madoka noticed that the other tunnels reached here as well.

"More of those damn roots," she stared up at the stretching tendrils. They threaded invasively through dirt and stone. Madoka's eyes and heart settled on the destruction they caused. "Like chemical streaks in the sky from nacelles... Gah!"

She clutched her head, as if her mind was being stabbed by needles. Madoka grabbed her shoulders. They were still warm, heated by the magic she got from Ares.

"Are you alright?" She asked. Audrey stumbled into her, but recovered. A simple grunt of affirmation nestled itself in her chest. "It's been awhile since I held you."

Streaks of red light pulsed within their pervasive darkness while they embraced for a minute. The root's texture seemed to be more like ash or worn out stone. Audrey pulled away, which was unlike her but Madoka did not mind. She did not want to know what bothered Audrey, but she remembered the destroyed palace walls and houses of her country and could imagine the princess did the same.

"I'm sorry. Had a moment of remembering my past. This place," she observed. Madoka looked with her. They were above a goblin city. It was big as a city square, made to live in by Goblins, but the architecture was conquered by the roots. Beyond it was a temple, no doubt the place they should get to next. "Seems to have experienced a miniature apocalypse of its own. The roots seem inactive, but we'll have to be careful crossing through when we get down there."

She hopped over a baluster made out of bones.

"How far did those adventurers go, you think?" Madoka wondered.

"I 'unno," Audrey ducked under a fallen pillar. "They probably got eaten by the roots."

Madoka fell silent at her suggestion. This place was more vast than she thought. Her eyes adjusted in the dim red glow above. The massive stone monument rested in shattered pieces, just ahead of many torn crude structures that lay shattered across the ground. They did not withstand the massive black roots that crushed them.

"Huh. Seem to be made out of scavenged wood, hastily made. Perhaps these goblins were not planning to camp out in front of the temple for too long," Audrey looked at the small huts. They were barely taller than Madoka, perfect for Grob's height and its kin. She looked through one of the windows and pulled away before the maid could stop her. "Don't look in there. There be dead things within."

Madoka obeyed this time. She could smell the dead in there, anyways. They were halfway to the temple and the roots did not seem like they were going to grow or attack, she prayed that they would stay that way. They rounded around more of the destroyed huts into an opening.

"Stalls," Audrey pointed at some that were still in tact. They were the size of benches. She looked at one and bumped into another. The wood splintered and growned into a clattering mess of wood. "Shit."

Madoka groaned, but she noticed what also cluttered the ground with the broken bench. Ears. Of course, she sighed. The goblins were obsessed with ears. The purple mist seemed to be absent from this place, so she hoped the evil eye entity controlling it had no power here.

"S-Sorry," Audrey tucked her glowing hands behind her waist and shifted pensively. "Ears, eh?"

"Ears," Madoka repeated her princess and sighed. "Always those damn things. I hate ears now."

"You and I both," Audrey agreed. "They must use them for everything. Maybe even their damn currency might be ears! Or food, even? Blegh!"

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

She kicked another waist high market stall over. It shattered easily. The wood, or whatever material it was made out of, was brittle.

"Let's get to that big temple thing, shall we? See if we can't find a way out of here."

"Right," Madoka scoffed. The two passed over the remains of shredded goblins.

"Something ain't right about them," Audrey remarked. Madoka looked at her. "Well, besides the obvious."

Some were impaled by something and others were splattered across the stone steps. A desecration was performed here, their insides painting the walls with digestive and rotted fluids. It seemed to be decorated in a profane oval. Madoka gagged, realizing the bodies were lying in the pattern of a dislodged eye.

"I hate this place," she glanced at the mess.

"Apparently whatever came across here hated it too," Audrey looked disturbed from the unsightly display. "I'd say you left them looking worse off during that last battle we had. But this attacker split them up like this on purpose."

Madoka would protest at the gruesome comparison, but instead remained silent as they gingerly stepped over bodies and crawled under interwoven roots in concrete. They arrived at the foot of a row pillars, its cracked stone steps were ruined by the enormous tendrils. Audrey tapped on the remains of a nearby pillar.

"Some kind of adobe and mud. Okay, maybe not mud, definitely not mud," Audrey quickly pulled her hand off. "Yucky!"

An ominous, red glow began to seethe through its surface from within. Madoka cursed to herself at the girl's recklessness. She was not trapped inside a goblin's fallen city — she was trapped with her princess. Something caused her gut to feel wrong, and the maid quickly tore her away from where she stood. A thin root suddenly speared through the pillar's remains, shattering and nearly stabbed her. Audrey shrieked, and Madoka realized that the root also had the remains of only the kind Gods knew stuck to it.

"Shit!" Madoka covered her as rumbling began. They were getting closer to the source of this evil magic!

"S-Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Audrey moaned as the calamity gained. The rumbling ceased. "Noted. Don't touch nothin' in this temple!"

"Even I could tell you that," Madoka groaned.

The root retracted back within the earthen wound it spread from. Several petrified ears and dirt rustled along the steps onto the streets below from a breeze. It felt rhythmic, almost like breath, too close in proximity to her own skin. The static of Knotting chains glided in pursuit, though she was not sure if the sensation of magic helped soothed her or merely distracted her from the nerve wracking feeling she had when they moved towards the temple's entrance.

"Okay, we're going down, down! Sugar!" Audrey perked up, and promptly descended into the maw of the temple.

"Wait!" Madoka groaned. It was terrifying how she quickly got over nearly dying a few moments ago. She did not have time to fall behind.

Fortunately, or by cursed luck, the misery of the unknown was before them right at the start. The temple merely had a massive wall with a shattered opening. That seemed to be where the evil roots were coming from, since Madoka's magic strayed away from it quickly.

"Hey," Audrey tugged the maid's sleeve, looking up at the wall. "Doesn't the wall look familiar?"

The jolted chains ran along the surface of the walls up to the ceiling, where more of the roots hang. The wall seemed unremarkable at first, but suddenly Madoka gasped at the princess's revelation: The wall looked like the AI Servitor Hesonoo.

"How is this possible?" She breathed uneasily. The wall's surface was rotted and stony, but a massive crater was inlaid in its side as if a sphere belonged within it. Only damaged stone and dark voids filled the openings that contained its arms and cannons would be if it was Hesonoo. "This isn't..."

"It is, but, it seems like its dead. Probably because of what we did in the grotto... Sorry, correction, what you did in the grotto." Audrey waved her off. "You know how you destroyed the robot?"

The maid stood puzzled for a moment. It seemed like an eternity ago since they entered that damn Secret Garden. She shook her head.

"I remember throwing the slime core at it," Madoka told her. "But now is not the time to relax!"

"You changed the core into a literal pillow! With magic! It's the damn truth, as those little chains shattered from your palms, it changed back into a big ass cannon ball directly at the eye!" Audrey cheerfully reminded her, but suddenly yelped in pain before Madoka could question her. Something in the atmosphere was changing rapidly. Madoka moved to defend her. "Gah! My head!"

Audrey clutched her head, her scream pierced the maid's ears and heart. Of all the sounds she hated the most, her princess in pain was at the top of the list. Madoka did not have time to react before the situation grew quickly into a deeper nightmare than ever before. The dark roots began to shift violently.

What do I do? Madoka turned towards the entrance of the temple, realizing that the vines were closing it off. They have fallen straight into an enemy's elaborate trap. Purple mist suddenly exhumed from the massive opening, making Madoka groan as she supported her princess. They were outmatched by dark magic and ways to escape.

"Kind gods, help us!" She screamed out while Audrey wailed in pain. The mist was forming into an unspeakable horror Madoka could not understand. The shape filled into a massive face of a being she could not comprehend that covered the entire wall.

This must be the God of the goblins! Madoka steadied Audrey, but was terrified to the core to run.

「I see you, Child of the Stars.」

It spoke in a thousand screams, rended by pain from the coldest feeling Madoka could feel. She struggled to breathe, yet she knew this impossible being was one of the undeniable Gods beneath the surface — a False God. Audrey clutched Madoka's sleeve, her eyes wracked with pain.

"M-Move!" She screamed.

Madoka shook out of her fears, but the face prevented her feet from moving no matter if she struggled. It had many large tentacles, a beak of a strange avian, and thousands of beady eyes— Madoka's world fell flat on her face. The princess tripped her!

"Get up!" Audrey shrieked, seemingly partially recovered from whatever was ailing her. "I don't know what's stopping you too, but I'll apologize later! We have to get through the thorns!"

Right, she had to save her princess! Madoka scrambled to her feet, trying to avoid looking at the face but it was impossible to avoid. Its mist was slowly wrapping around her head into her ears. Audrey could not see it, the maid breathed heavily as she swatted at the needles poking at her ears. She cursed and stamped more in defiance. Something was emerging through the deteriorating wall and she did not have the time to play this God's games.

"I don't care about you, I am no goblin!" Madoka scolded the entity. "Let us out!"

「One day I await your open ears, Child. Now obey her and survive.」

"I... Hate this!" Madoka roared furiously. She stamped the ground and pulled herself completely up. "I don't need you to tell me that, I need your help!"

「Your wish... Has been spoken of now and Tomorrow.」

"Madoka?" Audrey's core flared to life. Pain scarred her face from whatever was wracking her mind, but the princess was persevering through whatever her problems were. It was time for Madoka to do the same with this damn mist that pierced her eardrums!

"Focus on yourself, Elise!" Madoka screamed. It was only a moment, but she raised her hands up and pounded her own head savagely. The calamity was reduced to a blissful silence after a dull moment of pain. Blood smeared down her cheeks, but she did not care. "I'll take my own ears before giving them to you, false God!"

She yelled. In the dark, a root burst through from the opening but it seemed more animated. Madoka reeled in horror at the sight, even though she was now deaf she could feel herself screaming. The root was an elongated body, wearing the torn remains of armor bearing a familiar crest she recognized. It was one of the corrupted soldiers of the Prince's army!

Its wooden and torn up face unhinged its jaw as its eyeless sockets gazed at Madoka, but her vision was torn away from the massive Fiara Soldier and its root. The princess's desperate grip pointed at the vines blocking the area. Madoka noticed her princess's hand was glowing red as she prepared an explosive spell.

The soldier's stretched torso lead into the rest of its root, like it was a serpent with a fully grown man's upper half was in place of its head. As soon as it began to stretch further towards them, dead bodies fell out of its stomach's carved out cavity. Madoka barely had time to look but she noticed a sword of one of the dead glint in the ominous red glow. It belonged to the adventurer party that went in before them!

Audrey's magic spell launched against the roots. Madoka watched the fire spell silently collide against the blackened roots but nothing happened! She could not hear the explosion, but it caused the soldier's root to recoil. The princess was looking at Madoka desperately and mouthing something, but the maid knew what she must do. She reached with a bloody fist inside her chest for the golden crystal within her core. It was formed into the same bomb that she used against the AI Hesonoo's wall for the first time!

With the weapon inside her hand, she tossed Audrey to the side and hurled it at the roots. Kind gods, she prayed the weapon could cut through these disgusting vines. The bomb glowed as it sailed through the air for a couple of seconds, but Madoka could sense the soldier was closing in on them!

A bright light blinded her, but she felt the vibrations from the crystal's released magic consume whatever was near it. Madoka shielded Audrey from its explosion, as stone and root shards peppered her face. The wall of roots was broken!

The maid scooped her princess up and ran out the opening, ignoring the crystal flinging towards her chest as she retreated. The cave was collapsing from the new disturbance in its vicinity but Madoka kept running swiftly. It was odd to her how everything around her was exploding into golden light from her crystal. She felt the pillars and temple were crashing down upon them and more importantly— the soldier within.

More, more! I need more speed! Madoka thought desperately. Audrey wriggled herself out of her grip and began to run with her. She could only pray to the kind Gods that the princess could keep up with her. She pulled the crystal out her chest once more as they approached the collapsed tunnel they first entered through and smashed the roots that blocked it.

After that, her world went black.