Shadowbane

"What are you looking for?" Ishar asked as I threw another body off the pile.

"A hunchbacked Demon. Did you see one during your stay here? Its mouth is perpetually open and it has no teeth."

Ishar gritted his teeth, "... Yeah, I've seen one of those. We all have."

Ahh, that response... The Demon was probably torturing them for fun. I'll try not to bring it up again after this.

"Where did it die? There's no way it survived this mess, so it must be dead somewhere in this prison."

"No clue missy. The last time we saw it was before everything went to hell." Greyson cut in.

God damnit... I'm sorry girl, but there's really nothing more I can do if I don't find it in the rest of the prison.

Markus walked up to me, "You ready? We're leaving soon."

"No. I want to check the rest of the prison real quick for a hunchbacked Demon to see if it has that girl's ring. It shouldn't take too long."

Markus shrugged, "There isn't much left to check unless you plan on digging through all of the bodies. But go ahead, it shouldn't take you too long. We'll be at the entrance. Right now they're trying to stabilize the girl who was being eaten by the spider so they'll probably be happy for any amount of time they'll be given to repair her soul."

I can still hear her crying from here... That poor girl. I was only given a slight dose of that pain so I can only imagine what she's feeling right now after being subjected to that for hours. Albel is out there trying to help her too. He didn't say anything, but it's obvious that he holds himself partially responsible since we had to wait several hours in that office because of him.

I ran out of the room, and much to my surprise, Ishar and Greyson followed behind me. Ishar saw me glancing back at him and he just smirked.

"There's no fucking way I'm just going to sit quietly at the entrance and do nothing again. I've done enough of that since the last time I saw you... I feel alive for the first time in ages!"

Heh... Works for me.

I sighed, "Oh well. Thanks for trying to help me you two."

"Not a problem, but why are we going downstairs?" Greyson asked.

"There's one last person we need to bring with us."

The two of them glanced at each other but said nothing in response. Once we reached the cell, Ishar winced a little but Greyson practically fell backward as he attempted to escape the smell.

"Oh hell no! I'll wait for you two near the steps." Greyson said as he ran back toward the staircase.

Wasting no time, I walked into the girl's cell and broke the chains holding her hands up. Before she crumpled to the ground I caught her and began wrapping her in my blood mesh.

I was about to strap her to me when Ishar intervened, "Let me carry her."

He really wants to be useful right now, huh? Well, I'm not about to deny him that.

"Should I make you the same armor I'm wearing? Your old armor is long gone after all. But I won't be able to do that until we're back in the temple. It'll take a few hours."

"The artifact spear that I painstakingly raised for over ten years is also gone... It's like they took my son from me. God damnit just thinking about it really pisses me off!" Ishar sighed, then continued, "But by all means, please make me some armor. It looks kind of weird, like a skinsuit, but anything is better than nothing."

"Hey! It's much better than nothing. My armor scales with my personal strength, so it should be on the level of mana-infused chainmail right now."

"Oh? That's better than I expected..." Ishar said as I wrapped a mesh around him and the girl.

Before heading upstairs I quickly ran into the office at the end of the hallway and stuck both the gun and bullets into a sack nearby before slinging it over my shoulder. After that, all three of us walked toward the meeting point.

"Anything?" Markus asked as we reached the entrance.

Most of the people in the entrance were healing everyone who had been smashed into the walls by the spider. There's only a few who look like they're going to need help traveling. We're really fortunate considering how hard the spider threw them. They must have enhanced themselves as quickly as they could, otherwise they'd all be paste right now.

"Nope. Just more food and dead bodies." I continued, "We're in a warm forest but there aren't any insects eating away at the corpses or the food. It's... bizarre."

"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen a single bug inside the prison since everything changed..." A ninja said.

Markus clapped his gauntlets, "Alright, let's get going people. We have a long way to go, so please keep an eye on your surroundings. I doubt that bronze fucker is the only thing that will be hunting us."

After saying that he turned around and left the prison. As the rest of us followed him, I saw the spider's victim haphazardly strapped to the back of another ninja. That cloth is barely holding onto her... I guess it couldn't be helped since their very own clothes were already raggedy and falling off here and there.

I pull a long strip of blood out and turn it into soft mesh. The girl and the ninja carrying her watched me as I did it.

"Here. This will be better at holding her onto you. You won't even need to use your arms to hold her."

I wrapped the mesh around the both of them, securing her to the ninja. At first the ninja seemed a little weirded out, but after it was on, the two of them merely glanced at each other before thanking me. Sadly, I could barely hear the girl. Even that little attempt at talking seemed to cause great pain to her.

"You killed that?" Greyson asked, jerking his thumb toward the three-headed dog's corpse as we walked by it.

"We did, yes. Unfortunately, we couldn't kill the armored monster attacking us from behind though. I'm sure it'll attack us again at some point, so just be ready. I'm sure it's waiting for us to enter battle with another monster, just like last time."

The ninjas who heard me all began to look around with a slight tinge of panic on their faces. Markus already told them about the bronzed fucker, but I guess hearing it while you're out here as we walk by a giant dog monster's corpse it's going to affect them differently.

"Incoming!" Markus yelled as he drew his sword.

The ground shook as something ran straight at us from up ahead. It didn't take long to see what it was. One of the lion monsters appeared through the fog and immediately leaped into the air, swinging its greatsword down onto Markus. Markus enhanced his legs and dodged far to the left, but I heard him scream in pain despite the fact that he had clearly avoided the attack.

Lindon quickly applied his barrier to Markus, "What's wrong?! I was saving my barrier in case he attacked the backline, and it didn't look like he was going to hit you!"

"F-Fucking sword..." Markus said as he fell to his knees.

As I looked at Markus, I noticed he had a strip of flesh missing from his neck, and it was quickly turning purple. That's when I remembered what I had seen while one of these monsters fought a Minotaur during my first day here.

"Careful everyone! I think it's the serrated part of the lion's sword! See the serrated part wiggling around?"

"Shit... I see it now. Did those things poison Markus?!" Lindon yelled.

I glanced at the bag but decided against it. I better save the gun for when I truly need it... And a gunshot here will attract every monster for miles.

The ninjas spread out while two of them pulled Markus toward the middle of the pack.

"Bah! What a shit roll..." Greyson said, holding up a slingshot.

"... You went from a 'Flamethrower' as you called it, to a slingshot?"

Greyson shrugged, "You win some, you lose some."

"That looks like one hell of a loss..." Ishar said as he kept his eyes behind us, waiting for the other monster to show up.

I dropped the sack and ran forward, stopping directly before the lion. "I have yet to find a poison that harms me, so whatever is on that blade shouldn't be an issue for me."

The lion, who hadn't moved an inch after attacking Markus, suddenly sprung to life and jumped over me. Turning around, I saw that it was swinging at Markus again. It wants to finish him off first?!

The lion's head whipped back as Greyson hit it with something blue from his slingshot. At the same time, a few of the ninjas jumped onto the lion, but that had apparently been a bad idea, as I could see them struggling to get off the lion's mane, and none of their attacks were damaging it. Shit... I can see something wriggling about inside the lion's mane and it's all converging on those four ninjas.

The lion continued to swing away at Markus as the two ninjas holding him up dodged back and forth. I was about to attack it from behind when the lion's mane suddenly burst into flames. On instinct the lion pushed itself backward toward the ground, smashing itself onto the dirt. Luckily, the ninjas were able to free themselves just before it crushed them, but none of them were attempting to move away from the lion. That's when I saw the little worm-like creatures biting into their legs, causing them to turn purple.

Their closest brethren put the fire out on their clothes and killed the creatures poisoning them. They then picked them up and carried them to the back next to Ishar. The lion, still on the ground, whipped its sword around it in a circle, forcing everyone to jump over the blade, but a few of the people here didn't jump as high as they should have, leading to the tentacles on the blade tearing into their legs.

For my part, I had jumped toward the lion. It rolled to the left to avoid me but I kicked hard into the ground chasing after it. I quickly punched it in the back of its head before it could evade again, sending it reeling forward. I dodged backward while holding my arms in front of me as some of the acidic blood sprayed out in my direction.

I looked down as I felt something biting my arms and I saw several worms trying to bite through my armor. I ripped them off and threw them onto the ground, crushing them with my feet soon after. Fucking gross...

Albel incinerated the lion before it could get up, covering the entire thing in fire. But despite that, it still stood up and looked directly at him, clearly picking him as its next target. To my right I could hear something smash into the ground. Looking in that direction, I saw the bronzed monster dissipating into the fog again after its failed ambush on Ishar and Lindon. All of the damage we did earlier is repaired... Both of the damned things hands were intact.

The lion raised its sword high, but two ethereal purple arrows pierced the back of its knees before it could attack Albel, causing the lion to fall forward. It caught itself with its left hand but it was barely given enough time to glance backward to see what had attacked it before a large wooden staff came crashing down on its head. Acidic blood splattered everywhere, but everyone was able to evade in time.

"Oh thank god... I never thought I'd be this happy to see a Tengu Lord before now..." Lindon said. He was about to sit down in relief but he suddenly went alert and looked behind him. I don't think the armor will attack us now. Not with the lion dead and our support here. But he probably should stay vigilant like that just in case.

The look of pure joy on the ninja's faces almost made me want to smile as well. Wow... They really love the Tengu, huh?

"My Lord!! Thank you for saving us!" One ninja said.

The Tengu Lord glanced at the ninjas. The disappointment and disgust it felt toward the ninjas couldn't be more obvious.

Oh right... The ninjas serve a Tengu Lord, and it's most likely an evil one. So this heroic Lord isn't going to be very pleased with them.

However, if the ninjas noticed his feelings toward them, they clearly didn't care. Even the ones that were poisoned and unable to move looked like they wanted to start dancing.

Most of the Tengu's armor is banged up and covered in dried blood. His feathers are singed all over as well... Just how many monsters has he killed since we lost sight of him?

Greyson walked up to me, "Demon girl, what's the limit on the amount of rope you can create?"

"Rope? Do you mean my black mesh? I can make a good amount but nowhere near enough for what you're about to ask, there are just too many people injured. Most of these people who were poisoned will need to be carried the old-fashioned way. I can make enough for some slight support, but not enough to strap everyone in securely."

It actually is possible, but that would require me to channel mana into my core to replenish my blood supply as I go. The problem is that I haven't done that since I was a little girl, and I can't for the life of me remember how long it takes to forcibly create new blood. I feel like it took a while... But I'm not positive. It's too risky to sit out here while I fumble around making mesh when these people could just carry them normally anyway. All we can do is pray they're not attacked on our journey home. Plus...

I looked at the Tengu.

He looks completely exhausted... So the sooner we're back, the better.

As quickly as possible, I created enough mesh to strap the poisoned people to their carriers, but when I was about seventy percent done, I suddenly stumbled backward and fell over. Ishar caught me just before I hit the ground. Damnit, I knew it...

"... Too much?"

"Yeah... Way too much."

He helped me up as the Tengu turned and began to walk toward the temple. We followed behind him for what felt like ages until I suddenly saw a blue line connect to Ishar. His eyes widened, and soon after that he was chuckling while putting his right hand over his eyes. We must be close now. I've been completely out of it, so I don't even know how long we've been walking...

I glanced back at Markus. Albel and Lindon were dragging him along, but they weren't as worn out as the others despite Markus' unbelievably heavy frame and armor. I can see a slight shimmer of blue around them, Nisha must be empowering them.

Just as I was about to face forward again, Markus turned into a blue ball and shot off toward the temple. The ninjas looked around in a panic at the unknown spell, probably wondering if we were under attack. Smart move. Might as well just bring him back since he wouldn't be of any use if we got attacked anyway.

Eventually, the temple finally came into view. Most of the newcomers stopped to register at the barrier as we walked right through it. Once inside, the Tengu immediately laid down next to the temple and passed out.

Shana greeted us at the doorway. "My new clones have been keeping an eye on your surroundings. There were monsters coming for you, but about fifteen minutes ago they all turned around and went somewhere else."

Avoiding the temple maybe...? I don't know what else it could be.

"Long time no see little ninja," Ishar said, then smirked and motioned toward the group behind us, "We saved your friends."

Shana raised a middle finger at him, "Very funny, ass. You know better than anyone that I don't know who those people are."

"How come none of them scouted around us with clones? Shouldn't they have the same abilities as her?"

Shana said nothing as Ishar shrugged, "While I've only met a few ninjas before Shana here, none of them had the ability to split themselves. But enough of this, I want to eat damnit. Please tell me this place is packed with food?"

Nisha appeared through the door, "It's not, so you're going to have to wait. We're going to heal everyone as much as we can, and then we'll fill everyone with food before setting a new reset point. So any resets we may need after that begin with all of us ready to go instead of starved and crippled. For now we are boiling all of the potatoes Rei found a few days ago, so everyone will have to make do with that until we're ready."

"Good enough for me," Greyson said, sitting down next to the temple entrance.

The others slowly filtered in through the barrier and entered the temple. After everyone was properly fed and given water, they spent the next half a day healing their allies as best they could until they were certain they wouldn't die in their sleep. Barely a minute later everyone had fallen asleep and they stayed asleep for almost an entire day.

"Were you up the whole time?" Lindon said as he sat next to me.

"Yeah, but it's not a problem. I slept for several days before the reset, remember? I don't necessarily need to sleep right now, and I have a few things on my mind that I want to think about."

"And what's that?"

"Well... I suppose it's nothing particular. More like this whole situation, and what we're supposed to do next. We could go through the Jericho portal and jump into another one in that portal area before the people of Jericho find us, but what if we just end up in another Viktor-owned nation? We'll all die pointlessly then."

Lindon sighed, "Yeah... There aren't any good options for us, is there?" Lindon went silent for a bit, then continued, "It's kind of amazing. You never really know where your life is going to lead... Did you know that I used to be a bandit?"

"No, but I'm not surprised."

Lindon laughed, "That obvious, huh? I wasn't the ruthless murderer type, but I did steal from lots of people, so long as they weren't ultra-poor. That is, until I knocked a girl up. She was a weaver, but she wasn't in any illustrious position. She would weave in a dark dilapidated room with the other ladies, making next to nothing every single day. I didn't think much of her at the time, but when she told me she was pregnant..."

"You saw her differently after that?"

"I did... And somehow, all of a sudden, my profession disgusted me. I wasn't sure what to do though since I had no other skills aside from fighting, so in what I thought was a pointless attempt, I tried to join the Guardians guild. But shockingly, I didn't even need to go through any of the application process. Godwin saw my barrier ability and that was it, he said I was joining and I wasn't allowed to say no."

Hah... That does sound like Godwin.

"Hang on, why did you end up with Keith then? He wasn't in the Guardians guild. I thought he was an inquisitor who worked directly for Viseux?"

Lindon nodded, "That's right, and Godwin is the one who sent me to work for him. He wanted me to protect the up-and-coming rookie while keeping an eye on what Viseux was having him do. Keith knew exactly why I was there, but he didn't mind at all. If anything, he idolized Godwin, so there was no way he was going to be offended by any assistance Godwin sent his way."

The image of the current Viseux flashed through my mind. "... One more question. Where is your family now?"

"Hmm?" Lindon looked at me, not a hint of pain on his face. "Oh! You're thinking they were in Viseux? Hell no, I wasn't allowed to leave, but inquisitors and Guardians were allowed to relocate their families to other places. I sent her away while she was still pregnant, but we did continue to exchange letters up until I died. My Lord had one of his agents inform her that I was on an extended mission and wouldn't be able to contact her for a while. Better than telling her I was dead and waiting to be revived, right?"

Keith entered the room through a nearby door, still cleaning himself with a wet towel. "The difference between Lindon and Gaz was night and day. After Lindon, I wasn't too worried when the higher-ups said they were sending me more bandits to beat into shape. But those two ended up being a complete waste of space."

Lindon scoffed, "They were fucking useless, and far cruder than I ever was. Thanks for killing them for us, Rei."

"ALRIGHT EVERYONE, COME INTO THE MAIN HALL. LET'S GO!!" Markus yelled from nearby.

One by one we all entered the main hall and sat down. Markus and all the other poisoned individuals are looking much better. Normally there's no way in hell they'd be able to heal that fast... They're lucky to be inside one of Arkaios' temples.

Markus stood up once everyone was present. "While I'm sure you still have your doubts, the reset we told you about earlier does in fact exist, and we're about to set a new point. Hopefully we won't need it since the only thing we need to do from here on out is leave this wretched place, but we're obviously going to set a new point just in case. Understand? Our meal has just finished cooking, and after we're done eating, that's when we'll set a new point. So enter the dining hall and eat, please. I don't want to spend a second longer than I need to on this fucking moon."

Everyone stood up and walked to the dining room, but Markus stopped me when I was halfway there. "One sec, Rei. After the new point is set, can you scout the area between us and Jericho's portal? I'd prefer we didn't have to go that way, but it can't hurt to see how dangerous the journey there is."

"I was actually going to suggest the same thing after eating."

"Glad to hear it!" Markus slapped me on my shoulder and left to eat. I followed him into the dining hall, which was filled with people happily chatting back and forth. It's been a while since I've seen people this happy... I can understand why though. Compared to where they were before, this place must be heaven.

I immediately left the temple after we set a new reset point, and I've been running in the direction of the portal ever since, except...

"........"

I know I'm not imagining it... I've seen this same area several times now.

I walked over to the nearest tree and punched a large chunk out of it. After that I continued running toward the portal, but twenty minutes later I came upon a familiar sight.

... It's the tree I punched earlier. And there's the rainbow-colored rock with a small circle of dandelions next to it. What the hell is this? I know this fog is messing with my senses but there's just no way in hell I could run in circles like this several times in a row. Even if I was lost, what are the odds I'd end up at the exact same spot over and over?

I sighed and began running in the other direction.

Assuming I can, I'm going to return to the temple. Something is terribly wrong here, and the others will need to know about it. Hopefully Arkaios has a solution for whatever the hell is happening here.