She made her way down the stone hall, slower than she had ever done before. Mia was carefully watching the motes of light, to see if any of them were out of place, floating, or rapidly moving towards her.
But that was not the main contributor to her slow pace. If it was up to her she would be dashing down the hall to get as far away as possible from Cy’bogbi and out of this dungeon.
No, what was slowing her down so much was the lack of magic. The barrier had dampened her magic, leading her to her current state.
“Hmph…hmph…” with forced movements Mia dragged and pushed her legs forward, with no more ice platforms she had sunk back into the knee deep water, this alone would slow her down tremendously, but there was one thing the barrier didn’t effect.
“Aaaami~” Mia slumped down, exhausted and needing a break, she lifted one of her feet out of the water, her leg from the knee down covered in thick ice “Amiiii” she whined, trying to shake and scrape the ice off.
[What is it?]
She placed her leg back into the water, annoyingly forced to watch as more ice quickly started to replace the lost ice “Why doesn’t the barrier stop me freezing things.” She huffed.
[Well, from what I can surmise, it doesn’t appear to affect your essence. While your magic is limited it cannot effect your being.]
“Sure, whatever. annoying.” She trudged forward as fast as she could, attempting one final time to cast magic but it fizzled out as soon as it exited her body “ uuurgh….” The hall filled with the exhausted complaints of a child as Mia slowly made her way out of the dungeon.
Eventually and without incident, Mia made it out, hearing voices ahead she first made sure no one was by the entrance to the dungeon, with the way clear she peaked out, shocked at what she saw.
As she suspected, and what was obvious, the church had set up camp at the lake, several tents surrounding a campfire and people were all around, all wearing varying degrees of the standard church robe she was all too familiar with. ‘what are they doing here…?’ she wondered ‘did they not find Hiiro?’
[No, this is too big of a squad for that.]
Mia perked up ‘you sure?’ she thought the response seemed appropriate, if they still couldn’t find him. Just at a quick glance there were ‘1..2…12..’
[50.]
‘right, 50.’ She nodded, glancing over the group ‘hey isn’t that?’ she pointed over towards the lake, where multiple people had gathered, carving away at a large monster ‘hah! Serves them right.’ Mia recognized the monster, it was the same large monster that had chased her here, and while she was slightly disappointed she would not get to test her new strength on it yet, seeing it dead still gave her a sense of satisfaction.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
[Mia, can you get closer to the camp?]
‘Eh? Why?’ she looked towards the camp, across the open field… ‘I don’t think I can, its night but…’ she tried to save, getting an error as her answer ‘I’m not walking all the way here again.’
A laugh rung out from within the camp, a loud, feminine laugh. Mia paled, her tail going between her legs, she recognized the laugh ‘Nope, now definitely not doing it.’
[At least climb on top of the dungeon entrance.]
‘What?! No!’ she shook her head in defiance, heading in the opposite side of the entrance she reached her hand out ‘Look! I’m misting!’ she shook her hand, a light cloud of cold fog emitting from her body ‘Someone is going to notice.’ She was about to round the corner before her ears perked up and she ducked back into the dungeon, hearing talk from the other side.
“Hey Caleb, time to switch.”
“Bout time… was starting to get cold.”
Mia peeked around the corner, seeing two robed men talking.
“Anything show up?”
“Nah, not like any monster can.”
“Yeah, this fancy barrier sure is handy. Keeps even dungeons at bay.”
“For the most part.” The man nervously laughed “I almost started praying to Gaia herself when I saw that monster leap out of the lake.”
“Uh-huh, never been so glad to have these pompous elites around.” The man pointed over to the corpse being dissected “Have to be thankful to Gaia, we will have better rations for a few more days.”
The man shuddered “It’s better then dry rations, but even scletcher meat is better than that leafy taste…. Urh, well, time to force some of it down.”
“Right….” The man watched his partner walk away, before turning around and facing the distance.
[Behind the man, now!]
Mia circled the other way, catching up to the man returning to the camp and following behind him in his shadow, pausing for a moment ‘eh? Wait. WHY DID I LISTEN TO YOU?!’ she screamed in her mind, while she followed him the robbed figure towards the main camp.
[You were not getting away with that guy staring at your only escape route, might as well see what is going on at the camp.]
Her face turned red ‘Liar! I could have killed him and ran! It was only one!’
[So eager to commit murder, tsk tsk.]
‘I…you…!!!’ Flabbergasted at what she was hearing, Mia was speechless ‘These guys murdered my family! I’d kill them all if I could, but this barrier is…’
[Yes, and wouldn’t it be beneficial to learn what we can, while we can?]
‘…not when getting caught means I get sent back hours of running!’
“Shit, it is getting colder here…”
Mia froze, moving behind the man’s line of sight to stay hidden as he looked behind him.
The man stared back at the dungeon for a bit, before continuing his walk towards the camp.
[I believe in you Mia, you can do this.]
‘hrmg… you are good at reminding me why I hate you.’
They made it to the main camp, Mia ditching her unaware escort and ducking behind a tent ‘ok, now what.’ She peered around the corner, her eyes going wide in surprise, it was a lot bigger than she expected.
Rows upon rows of different tents, separated into groups around their own individual campfires. A lot of people, some not even wearing the standard church attire, all moving around doing their own busy thing. ‘That’s a lot more people…’
[We need to find the source of the barrier, I believe they said it was a ritual? Look for a group of people praying around a magic circle.]
She sighed, giving in at this point ‘just look for the people praying…in a church camp… got it…’
[At a magic circle.]
Mia rapidly shook her head, annoyed ‘I don’t even know what a magic circle even is!’
[Really? I could have sworn someone had mentioned it to you…oh well, I will recognize it once you see it, just look around.]
She gave up, rolling her eyes while she waited for her chance, then darted behind another tent. Starting her search for what ever Ami was so adamant on finding.