A/N - Thank you, tonright, for becoming God of Velmoryn's Patron!
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"Fine, I'll help you out," Elisabeth said after a short pause, licking her lips with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "But how are you planning to repay me? There's no such thing as free in this world."
I had already expected that response and prepared an answer in advance, but I still let the silence stretch, pretending to weigh my options. Her face stayed fixed on mine with an intensity that made it hard to believe she couldn't actually see me.
"I'll give you all the rewards," I said, keeping my tone light. "All I want is the dragon's body."
"Why?" she asked, her grin twisting. "So you can extract the essence?"
How does she know? I thought Crimson Rite was a Velmoryn-exclusive skill… do other races have something similar?
The assumption now felt naive. The word unique in the skill's description had misled me into thinking Velmoryns were the only ones capable of turning life into essence.
"Oh, you really thought I didn't have a method to refine life force?" she laughed, loud and genuine, tilting her head on the side with an amused expression. If she hadn't been blind, she'd probably have pointed at me in mockery.
"Yeah," I admitted after a pause. "I thought you didn't…"
"Oh, silly Avenor... I'm not just some wandering priest. My place in the Father's church is far higher than that. Of course, I have the device."
She grinned again and opened a portal beside her, pulling out a small black book with thick, uneven edges. It didn't look magical at first glance - just worn and old.
A device? Not a skill or a spell? Is this book that 'device'?
My eyes widened instinctively before I could control the reaction. Even if her eyes were stitched shut, I was sure she had the means to see or sense me. I still needed to mask my emotions.
"I didn't mean to trick you," I said, watching her fingers glide over the cover with care. "I just really want that essence. I figured if you didn't have a way to extract it anyway…"
She didn't respond.
Her attention was entirely on the book now, tracing the inscriptions on the cover like they were scripture. She looked almost reverent.
"I don't care about the essence," she said after a while, her voice lacking the usual sharpness. "I already have more than I can absorb."
Then she opened the book, set her palm against one of the pages, and started tracing the text with her index finger.
"But why are you after a fire essence?"
"What fire essence?" I asked automatically, the words slipping out before I could stop them.
Aren't essences just stat boosts? My status window doesn't list any element.
"Oh, Avenor... you really don't know anything about dungeons, do you?" she said, the mocking tone softening into something more curious. "Why are you even here, I wonder…"
Her expression darkened slightly, brow raising in thought, but whatever passed through her mind didn't linger long. She shook it off and continued.
"Elemental essences are a dungeon-exclusive thing. Some powerful monsters are born of an element, and only later given physical form…" As she explained, her attention started to slip. "Those essences are used to strengthen elemental affinity... but they're mostly for the talentless. You sacrifice your…"
Her words slowed, losing focus with each syllable until they stopped completely. Her hand hovered over the open book, not turning the page, just tracing the edge of the parchment like it held something she wasn't ready to let go of.
"Why did you stop explaining?" I asked, watching her shift the book gently in her grip.
"The dungeon is interfering…" she murmured, not really answering me so much as thinking aloud.
"I wanted to make you swear an oath," she added after a pause, closing the book and kissing its cover with quiet reverence before slipping it back into the portal. "But it won't activate."
Was that book created with divine energy? If so, then it must have been Hollow Core. It might've protected me from whatever oath she planned to force.
I'd narrowly avoided binding myself to something I couldn't even perceive. I needed to leave the chamber and make her fight the dragon to see her true strength. After that, I'd plan what to do. My entire body was telling me that she was more dangerous than the fire-breathing reptile.
"Can we go now? I want to get out of this dungeon as soon as possible," I said, bending to retrieve the torch and turning toward the exit.
"You won't need that," Elisabeth replied quickly, slipping her feet back into her dress. "I'll make the fire for you… Did you know there's a type of mushroom found in dungeons that tastes like meat and boosts mana like an essence? My teacher once found over a hundred and ate them all. She said, unlike true essences, the mushrooms can be consumed without break and the effect is instant…"
Now that she was no longer focused on the book and runes on her forehead had faded completely, her mind began to wander again, spilling trivia and side stories like a dam cracking open. But for once, the information sounded useful, assuming any of it was true.
"Elly, let's go," I interrupted, just as she began talking about three-eared rabbits and whether they were edible.
"Yes, but first, can you cut this in half for me?" she asked, already reaching into her portal. "It's time for me to take it."
She pulled out a small knife, a vial filled with translucent liquid, and an electric-purple essence the size of a thumb. Its glow pulsed faintly, and even without identifying it, I could tell the tier was higher than the lesser.
By now, I was fairly certain her portal was linked to some storage space similar to my Veilspace, but judging by the number and size of things she had retrieved so far, its capacity must have been massive.
"Alright," I said, accepting the gelatinous mass and the knife. I had never seen the essence with that color or that size before.
I cut it carefully and handed one half back to her, the thought of stealing it crossing my mind.
"You can keep the rest if you like, though I doubt magic power will be of much use to someone like you," she said, shaking the vial with the essence inside of it gently.
So that essence is magic power…
I watched the translucent liquid darken, shifting into the same electric-purple tone, slightly diluted now, but still radiant. Without hesitation, she opened the vial and drank the entire thing in one gulp.
Huh? How can she drink that? Maybe it's some kind of alchemy? Or… is she pregnant? No... it doesn't seem like that. The method is different from what Aria told me.
I wanted to ask, but I'd already asked too many questions and I was not willing to risk prying too much.
"All right, let's go kill the lizard, Avenor," she said with a smile, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand before casually extending it toward me.
I grabbed her hand and pulled, helping her stand up, but the moment she rose, she leaned in closer than necessary, bumping lightly into my chest. Her grip tightened just enough to send a message.
"And after we kill the dragon," she added with that same damn grin, "you and I will need to have a little talk about my payment."
I didn't respond. Just pushed her away.
So I have to kill you before the dragon dies.
…
After confirming that the Green Tribe had truly won, I checked the others too. Their fights were already over. But what caught my attention was that none of them had been attacked by the giant green spider. Only my tribe and the Green Tribe.
Was it random? Or did someone send a stronger force against us on purpose?
I didn't have an answer to that. What I did know, however, was that my plans to rebuild and reform the tribe had been delayed. Apparently, their funeral lasted three days.
First, they honored the fallen Velmoryns - washed their bodies, tried to hide the worst of the damage, and laid them out together in front of the Crimson Guardian. Surprisingly, the tree, without my command, decided to join the ritual, weaving a bier of tightly wound roots for the corpses to rest on.
Then the rest formed a circle around them. One by one, they walked it solemnly, stopping before the grieving families to offer their condolences. After each round, they moved to the side, cut open a hand, and let their blood spill into a shared stone basin. I still didn't know what they intended to do with it. By the end of the second day, the basin was nearly full. Without that red powder they kept adding, it probably would've hardened and dried out by now.
Today was the third and final day.
"My love… how could you do this to me…" Vivien sobbed, her voice dry and broken from days of crying. She wore a black robe that covered her entirely. So did all the other mourners. They stood together at the heads of their loved ones, still crying, still clinging.
I watched from the side, thinking about what I was supposed to be in all of this. A spectator? A higher being who offered no more than the occasional miracle? I could let them bury or burn the dead however they saw fit, or I could step in, take this ritual and shape it into something more lasting, something that would be closely connected to me.
Should I turn their bodies to stone? Immortalize them?
No. It would be wasteful. Unsustainable once many more died.
And then it hit me.
All this time, I'd played the part of a superior force - powerful, distant, demanding faith - but I hadn't given them anything to believe in. No ideology. No structure. Apart from banning duels among tribesmen, I'd left everything else untouched.
That had to change.
I need to shape the religion. Guide them slowly. Teach them how to grow stronger, not just in faith, but as a society.
The first thing that came to mind was something I'd always believed, something that had stayed with me even after death, and ironically, I was right, just not in the way I'd imagined.
Death really was only the beginning.
I stirred the divine power within me and let my awareness settle on the corpses laid out before the Crimson Guardian. Divine energy flowed down from me in a slow, crimson ray - not harsh or commanding like it had been with Roy or Tekla, but soft, almost reverent.
The beam washed over the dead, bathing them in a warm light. A faint shimmer rose from their bodies as traces of green and red danced around them. It was my divinity drawing out the final remnants of their life force, infusing it with my power to create something new. Something sacred. The spheres as big as a thumb slowly formed, hovering over the corpses. The resulting essences would be safe to absorb, and more than that, they'd offer balanced growth across multiple attributes, which would depend on the life force of the fallen Velmoryn.
It wasn't a grand show of power. It was a gesture steeped in symbolism, one that came to me on instinct.
I wanted to tell my believers that those who die in service to me don't vanish. Whether they truly joined me in the divine realm, I wasn't sure. Apart from Roy's now dimmed star, nothing else had appeared in my divine realm. But the Velmoryns had no way of verifying that. What they could see, however, was that their families, their bloodlines, would be strengthened through sacrifice.
[Warning: Creation consumed 1.8 Divinity Points!]
Nine essences. Not cheap, but not expensive either.
Each Velmoryn who received the crimson-green essence held it as if embracing the one they'd lost. Some wept. Others whispered words I didn't hear. But every single one treated it like a last gift left behind by their loved ones.
Except Vivien.
She took hers in silence. Her eyes softened when the essence touched her palm. And in that moment, I felt the bond between us weaken. Her emotions seeped through the connection: anger, gratitude, grief, hope, but also a quiet, building resolve. Then, without hesitation, she swallowed the essence whole.
She chose her child's future over her own strength.
It made sense. Still, I was disappointed. I would've preferred a stronger Vivien tomorrow, rather than a promising Velmoryn decades from now.
As I watched Vivien, the crimson leaves began to fall in a slow spiral above the corpses, drifting down like red ash. The Oak Guardian stood silent, adding beautiful and emotional effects to the scene I tried to create.
Then, Tekla stepped forward and took over, her eyes sparkling as she witnessed something that justified her faith. She spoke only a few words, most of them directed at me - gratitude for protecting those who survived, and a solemn reverence as she referred to the Crimson Tree again and again as the Divine Tree.
Then she lifted the basin, the one filled with blood collected over the past days. She walked to where Roy's body lay and dipped two fingers into the thick red pool. Slowly, she brought them toward his forehead.
But just before they touched, she stopped, hesitating.
And then, in a voice so quiet it almost bypassed sound, I felt her words brush against my consciousness.
"High Father… please bestow upon us Your mark."
**
A/N -
I have no idea how it happened, but I somehow lost all of my outlines. The drafts and planning I did for the next 10 chapters just vanished...
I spent way too much time trying to recover them, and when that failed, writing the new chapter without any outline took much longer than usual :/
It's fine though. I'll be working on a new outline tomorrow and should have it redone by the end of the day. Just threw a bit of a wrench into my plans xD
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