Rieren couldn’t move. The agony was too great. Divine Resilience was doing its best to heal her up. She was glad the recent perk point had raised its efficacy. But even with that, she could only heal so quickly.

As such, she had to contend herself with watching the proceedings. Rieren had managed to rejoin her arm pulled out of the shoulder socket, and despite the pain, she was leaning against it so that her perk could ensure it healed correctly. Otherwise, the healed musculature was likely to form around the torn skeleton, which wouldn’t be great.

Elsewhere, Amalyse was now performing the duty that Rieren had done for her not too long ago. Where Rieren had carried her around when escaping Lionshard Mountain’s collapse, it was now her turn to lug around the other two disciples.

Well, the one that could be lugged around.

Folend had been viciously injured by the Aetherian before its departure. Something was wrong with him. Not just the injury he had suffered against the monster. He wasn’t responsive, preferring to let Amalyse do whatever she wanted without comment, not even bothering to complain at Amalyse’s manhandling of him.

Rieren wondered if he was having trouble bearing the humiliation. If she had the energy, she might have told him there was nothing humiliating in suffering at the hands of an overwhelmingly stronger foe. But she wasn’t feeling that charitable towards Folend at the moment.

Besides, Serace’s situation was even more difficult. As it turned out, all those branches that had scared off the Aetherian had shot out from him directly.

Rieren was able to see his body through the hole on the Anachron’s corpse that had been carved open by the rising branches. If she hadn’t known that was Serace, she would never have been able to tell. He was a misshapen blob of flesh covered with the same kind of earth that the Aetherian seemed to hate so much.

“Can you hear me, Serace?” Amalyse asked.

The only thing left recognizable of Serace was his head. Though, even there, the back half of his head was slowly turning into a thick earthen root. His voice ground out when he answered as though he had aged several centuries. “What do you want?”

Amalyse pursed her lips. “We want to know how we can help you. Unless you want to be stuck in that form.”

Serace didn’t answer for a while. When he did, his voice sounded even more gravelly than before. Like Folend, there was something broken about it. “You cannot help me. No one can. This is one endeavour I must undertake by myself.”

“Are you sure? There must be something we can do to assist you.”

“There is nothing. Leave me alone.”

Humiliation. Something told Rieren that was what it came down to again. First Folend with his injury suffered against the Aetherian, and now Serace with his transformation into… whatever he now was, thanks to being forced to ingest the dead Anachron’s Beast Core. No one wished to be looked upon when they were in their lowest moments.

Amalyse slowly stood up. “We don’t have time to wait. We’re going to find the others and see if they need help.”

Serace didn’t answer.

“But we’ll send help as soon as we can,” she said. There was a little twist on her expression as she turned away, back towards Rieren. A mournful twist. “I promise.”

“I can walk on my own,” Rieren said as Amalyse reached her.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“I will have to.”

Amalyse didn’t look happy about that. But they all knew that waiting wasn’t on the cards. They might have accomplished their objective here, which meant they needed to find the rest of the Sect and assist them where needed.

“I’ll take care of Folend then,” Amalyse said.

Normally, Folend would have violently protested against any such notion. Now, he simply stared up at the distant broken ceiling. Lava was still falling down into the enormous pit, though the flow had slowed a great deal over the course of their battle against the Abyssals and the lone Aetherian.

Rieren slowly pushed herself to her feet. As much as she had no wish to be a burden on Amalyse, she certainly hadn’t healed up enough in the twenty minutes or so that had passed since the end of the battle.

Her legs were alright, though. That was all she needed to get moving. Not that she looked forward to the trek.

It wasn’t just the injuries. The pain would have been easier to deal with if she could remain still and rest, but more than that, the battle had granted her a great deal of Essence. The Deathpulse Confetti on her Receptor sword had drawn in a good amount of pure Essence from the dead Abyssals. She was attempting to channel it all, but without meditating, it wasn’t easy.

“Let’s go,” Amalyse said. She had one of Folend’s arms slung over her shoulder, helping him along as they walked.

Rieren took a step forward. Agony flared in too many places for her to keep track. She only winced and kept on walking.

“This is going to be a pain,” Amalyse muttered, adjusting Folend’s weight so it was less bothersome to carry him. He didn’t react at all, only glared blankly.

“You won’t have to worry for long,” Rieren said.

“What do you mean?”

“The dead Abyssals. If we can recover some of their Beast Cores, we can sell them on the System Shop and buy some potent healing salves and liquids.”

“Oh, that’s brilliant. Wait, they don’t act instantaneously, do they?”

“They do not. We will still have to wait some time before we can move as we wish. But regardless, they are better than nothing.”

Amalyse nodded in agreement. Sparing one last farewell for Serace—who only looked blankly at them—they journeyed on. Near the spot where the rocky ledges lead upwards, they met the guards. Rieren was as surprised as Amalyse to see them all alive and well.

“You could try not to look so surprised,” the woman said.

“How did you manage to survive?” Amalyse asked. “Is there a hiding spot none of us know about?”

“Nothing so fancy. We just were ignored by the Abyssals. Once you lot jumped off, all the monsters changed course and headed right after you as though we might not have existed at all.”

“And Abyss, were we thankful for it,” added the man who had been their spokesperson.

“Well, I’m glad you’re alive,” Amalyse said. “We’re heading to find the rest of the Sect. Now that our objective here has been accomplished, we need help the others.”

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“Our objective here isn’t done,” Folend said.

“You can talk now?”

Rieren frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

“We can’t leave Serace behind.” Folend might have found the strength to speak, and he certainly sounded determined, but he didn’t move from Amalyse’s grasp. “What if more Abyssals come here? He might be able to make Aetherians fly away, but he can’t protect himself against other monsters.”

“What do you mean?” one of the guards asked. “We weren’t able to see what happened other than some bright flashes and explosions.”

As Amalyse explained, Rieren considered the problem. Folend had raised a good point. They had all assumed that now that Serace had ingested the Beast Core, no one would be able to extract it from him and use it for their own gain. But did they have a guarantee for it?

Rieren knew it was nearly impossible to extract a Beast Core once its Essence had been channelled. However, the Abyssals might have nefarious plans didn’t require the Beast Core’s extraction. To prevent that, Serace would need protection. He would need a defence. Things they couldn’t provide, not if they wished to meet up with the rest of the Sect.

Unless…

She turned to the guards, who seemed to have come to the same realization. All their eyes were fixed upon the strange branches in the distance.

“We’ll take care of him,” the spokesperson said. None of the guards reacted negatively to that pronouncement. “Least we can do after abandoning you lot.”

The rest of the guards nodded resolutely. Rieren smiled. It might not be enough if the Abyssals came in force, but it was much better than nothing. Avalien would have been proud to see his fellows here.

And that made Rieren wonder if the guardsman was still alive.

“I appreciate it,” she said. “But first, we require assistance on a different matter for the time being.”

She explained how they needed the Beast Cores from the fallen Abyssals around them. They had already passed several corpses that they hadn’t looted yet, having been distracted by the arrival of the guards.

Rieren pointed at the monstrous bodies with her good hand. “We need to extract the Beast Cores. We can separate them into each of our individual shares.”

They got busy recovering the loot. Rieren didn’t move around too much, staying on the lowest rocky ledge with Folend while Amalyse led the recovery effort all over the large chamber. It took a little while, but they eventually returned with a pile of extracted Beast Cores.

Separating them took a bit of thinking. No one really haggled or tried to get more than what Rieren apportioned. She had tried to be fair after all. The guards had each received two of the E-Grade Beast Cores. Rieren had taken the majority of the D-Grade ones due to her efforts, though she made sure to grant at least one to Folend and Amalyse.

None of them could use Abyssals Beast Cores to channel Essence. Nobody could use Abyss-Aspected Essence, after all. So, they all sold their Cores to earn a hefty amount of Credits.

Folend did end up buying the little healing potion that Rieren recommended. It was a golden fluid in a bottle the size of his thumb. Skeptical though he looked, Folend tipped the little bottle’s contents into his mouth and ate it all.

“I think it really is working.” He stared at Rieren with newfound respect. It actually looked genuine, which looked extremely weird on his wide face. “How did you know about it?”

Rieren shrugged. “Experience.”

She checked the impulse to shake her head. Killing all those Abyssals and dealing more damage to the Aetherian than any of them had managed hadn’t left any impression upon Folend. At least, nothing positive about her. She suspected that their difference in strength had only depressed Folend, which explained his earlier despondence.

Yet, now that she had given him a suggestion to his benefit, he now looked at her as something approaching his equal. Like a master painter saw a child dipping their fingers into paint for the first time.

Forget shaking her head, Rieren realized her next impulse—slapping him across the face—was worse. She took a deep breath to rid herself of the intrusive thoughts.

“Let’s get going,” Amalyse nodded.

They left properly. Rieren’s Divine Resilience had healed her some more so that the climb back up to where the tunnel continued on the other side of the chamber wasn’t as painful as she had assumed it was going to be. Of course, she still had to struggle.

Batcat’s loud meow announced Kervantes’s arrival. The winged kitten leaped out of his arms and rushed to Rieren, for once ignoring the Abyssal blood on her, though it did wrinkle its adorable nose.

She picked it up. “I applaud your good behaviour, cat.”

Batcat answered by jumping on Rieren’s head and nesting in her hair.

Kervantes greeted them as they reached the passageway’s opening. “Well, well, it certainly took you a while. But I congratulate on your successful endeavour.”

“I want to say no thanks to you, but you did help with the traps,” Amalyse said.

“It wasn’t truly me. Asenciel had a much greater hand in activating the traps. I only helped find her. However, I accept all thanks on her behalf.”

“You know where the others are, right Folend?” Rieren asked.

He grunted. His answer came out with great reluctance. “They’re going after the Abyss Rents, like I already said.”

“But you do not know where they are located?”

“Never fear,” Kervantes said. “I know well where those abhorrent aberrations exist. Come. I shall guide you.”

They moved on. Kervantes led them through the winding tunnel for a long while before taking a left turn. Folend had his eyes fixed on the back of the Ceramic Automaton’s head. Rieren was sure that, at the first sign of something even a little off, Folend would immediately attempt to smash his mace into the dungeon guardian’s face.

Except, his mace had been shattered by the Aetherian. She wondered if he would use his Credits to purchase a new weapon.

Most of their journey was silent. But after a while, they began to hear some clicks and clanks, familiar noises that signalled the presence of another automaton. Rieren was about to ask about the source of the sounds, but Amalyse spoke first.

“That’s Kervantes’s friend,” she said. “The one whose thanks was stolen.”

Kervantes made a clicking noise in what passed for his mouth. “That is an extremely unhelpful descriptor for Asenciel. Not untrue, however.”

The source of the sounds in question came into view soon enough. She was shorter than Kervantes, not much taller than Rieren herself. Unlike his ceramic compatriot, she wore a strange, glittering robe and a pointed hat.

“Oh, hello,” she said far too pleasantly for a dungeon guardian, though her tone and register were nearly identical to that of Kervantes’s. “Are these the ones you mentioned?”

“Correct. They are our sacrificial pawns for reducing the presence of the Abyssals.”

Before any of the disciples could contradict that notion, the new automaton clapped her hands. “Excellent! I hope you have an amazing time in our dungeon. Farewell.”

Rieren blinked. If the automaton was capable of expressions, she he would have been offering them a too-sweet smile along with her goodbye.

“Now, now, no need to be to dismissive, Asenciel,” Kervantes said. He swung an arm at his smaller companion. “This is the excellent automaton who reconfigured the traps in moments and killed all those Abyssals. The great astrologer, Asenciel.”

If automatons could look bashful, Asenciel certainly did.

“Astrologer?” Rieren asked.

“Ah, it is merely a hobby. There isn’t much you can do when stuck inside a dungeon at all times, after all.”

“So you pass your time watching the stars?”

“And the planets, distant galaxies and nebulae—and I shall cease boring you with details.”

“On the contrary, it is not boring to me at all.”

Amalyse coughed into her hand. “We need to get going and find the rest of the Sect.”

Once more, they decided to move on, Asenciel again stating her somewhat forceful farewell. But as they passed, Rieren noticed a small crack in the wall behind the other automaton. She edged past the Ceramic Automaton to see a short, steep stairwell leading upwards. Beyond it, there was a room filled with strange tools and assorted mechanisms.

Rieren stepped back as Asenciel fluttered her arms in consternation. “Apologies, my curiosity got the better of me. Are those telescopes and astrolabes up there?”

“Yes. One needs tools to observe the distant heavens.”

“Of course.”

“Rieren,” Amalyse called from farther ahead. “Come on.”

“One moment,” Rieren said. She turned back to focus on Asenciel. “I have a rather important question for our mutual benefit, but I am also short on time. So, please answer as succinctly as you are able. Have you seen any shifts in the stars in the night sky recently?”

Once more, Rieren was struck with the impression that Asenciel would have raised her eyebrows had she possessed any. The automaton took a moment to consider Rieren’s seemingly strange inquiry.

“I have indeed,” she finally said. “They shifted around the same time the apocalypse started, when the Abyssals began arriving in the dungeon.”

“And how exactly did they shift?”

Asenciel paused. “Very strangely. They seemed to… grow larger. I could not believe that at first, so I’ve begun tracking their sizes over the course of time. In the last week, I have calculated a 0.7% increase in their girth. Very intriguing, and worrying, I must add.”

Rieren kept her expression neutral despite the thoughts warring in her head. “Thank you. Fear not, we will deal with it.”

She left the automaton. It felt as though Asenciel wanted to ask her own questions, but she was likely happier to see them gone from her precious laboratory.

For herself, Rieren was far more worried about the automaton’s revelations. If the stars had indeed grown larger, things were even more serious than she had at first assumed. The stars—and the greater cosmos in general—were the source of the Aetherians’ power. They were, for all intents and purposes, the monsters’ home as well.

And their growth meant there would be more of those golden bastards they had fought and barely survived not too long ago. In other words, Rieren and the others would have to grow stronger as soon as possible.