Just as we had approached the Gate of Deceit, an illusion ensnared us all. We were drawn back into Aurora's past to the day of the Odille Massacre. As we all stood around in the town, Aurora shouted that a convergence spell was coming, so we reacted just as she did and shielded ourselves.
Immediately after the blast, when I reopened my eyes, I witnessed the massive destruction. All of the buildings were gone. The convergence spell had obviously killed all the humans, who were weak to even the weakest spells. But the damage was far greater than that. Where the temples had stood moments before, even the protected priests and priestesses were lying on the ground inert.
As we gazed around at the desolation, everything besides the people and animals had overloaded with magic and disappeared. When Aurora sighted her fallen family members, she let out a wail of misery and anger. Her last-second shield had not been enough to protect them in the past, so even through it should have now, it didn't.
Scattered here and there, the saints visiting the temple and town were looking around at the wreckage and at one another. The survivors were drenched in the ethereal rain that fell from the magical overload.
They had all summoned their soul-weapons, but were not faced with enemies, just with destruction… And what destruction! A scorched landscape full of cadavers and craters where buildings had once stood.
Aurora began pacing and muttering to herself. I tried to get her attention, but she didn't seem to hear me.
"Why couldn't I save them?" she said. "Why? Why did I fail them once again… wait… Once again?" She paused in her pacing, and after a moment, returned to the same mutterings, caught in a loop.
"Aurora… you… you did not protect us… why? Why did you let us die?" Her brother was still alive, barely hanging on. He was pointing a damaged finger in the air and accusing her.
"No, no," said Aurora. "I'm sure I shielded you. I'm sure I did it right this time!" Again, she paused. "This time?" She placed a hand on the side of her head and squinted as if I headache had come on. She started banging an open palm against her head.
The miasma encircled her body and began eating away at her essence. It wouldn't take long at that rate to turn her into a fallen.
"Aurora!" I shouted.
She seemed to hear me this time, but then she transformed Ten Commands into a dagger and turned it on herself.
"I'm guilty. Again!" she screamed as she raised the dagger high into the air.
"Aurora, stop that!" Chiki shouted. She didn't hesitate, so I materialized my bow and fired an arrow, knocking Ten Commands out of her hand. The blade went bouncing away and resumed its sword form.
Aurora looked around, confused. After a moment, her eyes drifted to where Ten Commands lay. She dematerialized it and then looked at Chiki and me.
"Miwa-sama? Chiki-sama?" she said, still seeming dazed. Suddenly, she threw open her arms as if she meant to hug us, but then quickly retracted them and watched us with suspicion.
"You are being eaten by the miasma," I said. "You're going to become a fallen. Don't let that illusion bind you. Call on your tiara! Call on Luxina!"
"Luxina…" she said, as if the name seemed familiar to her. As she stood there with a puzzled look, I recited the words for her to chant. To my relief, she did and Luxina began purifying the miasma.
She seemed to slowly regain her composure, but still looked weak and stumbled. Without thinking, I bent and kissed her, transferring some of my energy to her. It wasn't enough, and I didn't have any more to give. I fell backwards onto the ground. Aurora was gasping for air. Suddenly, Chiki swooped in and kissed her, as well.
She straightened up and breathed more easily, but looked bewildered.
"Why did you kiss me, Chiki-sama?" she asked, seeming unaware of her surroundings. But she was recovering. Luxina was doing its work.
Chiki clutched Aurora in his arms and told her repeatedly he wouldn't know what to do if we had lost her. After a moment, Chiki came back to his senses. He helped Aurora stand on her own and then immediately backed away and apologized to me repeatedly.
"I'm sorry, Miwa," he said. "I know you have a thing for Aurora, but—Well, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."
"It's fine, Chiki," I said. "We'll talk more later, but thank you for helping save Aurora."
"Of course," he said. He fidgeted awkwardly, and Aurora still looked confused.
"Chiki and I are always so close," I told her, "so it's no surprise we have such similar taste. And you defy death, his own god, so often…"
Aurora looked around at where her fallen family members had been in the thick of the illusion.
"Don't blame yourself, Aurora. You could do nothing," said Chiki, shaking his head. "We saw. You extended your shield. It's just…" he trailed off and didn't complete his thought.
"They were too weak," blurted Tenshi.
Quickly following up, I said, "But I understood something. You have this abnormal amount of magic because of what happened that day. Your body absorbed and adapted, so now you have so much magic you can't drain it all."
"The only part that confuses me is how Chiki and Miwa were able to see through the illusion when Aurora was still trapped in it," Kenten said. "She's the one who sees through illusions, after all."
I shook my head. "No, Aurora saw through it first," I said.
"It was the trauma of seeing her family die again that trapped her," Chiki added.
Aurora looked embarrassed. "My secret's out, huh?"
"About your family?" I asked.
"No," she said. "That I'm not invincible." She gave us a weak smile and then thanked us for pulling her the rest of the way out of the illusion.
The Gate of Deceit was still sealed and loomed large before me. Aurora looked it over, observing every edge and surface. She shook her head in dismay and then swallowed another six pearls. For a moment, she studied her now-diminished stockpile.
"I don't know if I still have it in me to open this," Aurora said. None of us had a response to that. If she couldn't do this, then we had come all this way for naught. Turning around wasn't an option. We had simply left too many enemies in our wake. The only way out was through.
"Tenshi-sama," Aurora said. "This is the final gate. If ever there were a time for that sanctuary, now would be it."
Tenshi drew everyone close together and cast the sanctuary spell around us. Almost immediately, the abyssal sensed our presence. That booming voice echoed throughout the castle again, directly threatening Aurora, the no-longer-hidden Mystic. It called out each of the other members of our group, identifying us as Saints of our respective deities. It was a bone-chilling voice.
Inoio shuddered. Tenshi grimaced, but kept focusing his energy on the shield. For a short while, at least, we were insulated from the pervasive miasma. Everyone popped another pearl into their mouths. Even Kenten requested one from Aurora this time, although he promised to repay her as soon as he could.
Once we had taken a few moments to rest within the clean air of the shield, Aurora stood defiantly before the gate. The shield dissipated around us, and we all gathered our weapons. Aurora began chanting her Revelation spell, which revealed that the gate was in fact non-existent, and to open the "last barrier," she chanted the Unison spell to unify the realms.
No barriers remained. We entered the very last room in the castle.
The room was unlike any other in the castle. In fact, it was easy to mistake this place for something else entirely. Everything was still covered in miasma, of course, and it was, somehow, even thicker than before.
The very walls, ceiling, and floor seemed to vibrate and hum, as if they were alive, rather than made of stone. The place had a damp, cavernous feel, like we were being sucked into the throat of some great beast.
In the center of that room stood something that looked like a beating heart, with necrosis, and an eye without any eyelids or eyelashes. The cavernous voice came from this room, from this thing.
"So there you are, Mystic," it said. "You dare present yourself before the Abyssal of Deceit."
We were all still under the effects of the ethereal pearls we had swallowed, but that wouldn't last much longer. If we didn't defeat that thing quickly and get clear of the miasma-filled room, we were goners. Everyone appeared to be struggling. Inoio looked downright terrified of the abyssal.
"Now, now..." the abomination said in a tone that sounded more like laughter. "Who have you brought here? I feel their presence, Mystic. You have led a delicacy to my lair..."
The fighting broke out before I had time to even process. In flash, Aurora seemed fearless. She looked back, at us, and to my shock her familiar began shifting before our very eyes.
With a flourish, the half-human rat surrounded himself with a cloud that then exploded into a blast of light and pure energy. In that moment, we all learned exactly how her god had been keeping such close track of our every step. Before us now stood the God of Mysteries, having abandoned his rat form and taken on his ethereal divine form.
For a moment I wondered how a god could stand in such a miasma-filled room, but then I felt silly. If our auras were still protecting us, a god would have no trouble with this level of miasma either.
I caught Inoio looking in Aurora's direction, and he and I both discerned that she wouldn't be able to stand up to the miasma as long as the rest of us.
"We must help my God!" Aurora bellowed at us all. "Purify the abyssal!"
"Purify an abyssal?" Kenten shouted. "Is such a thing possible?"
Time of the essence, though, so as soon as she said it, I began the process. A lush green plant grew around the abyssal. Soon after, ethereal chains tangled around it. Chiki was focusing his energy through them to purify as much of that abomination as he could.
Tentacles erupted from the ground and reached for our legs, wrapping themselves around my ankles. I cut them with my sword and continued with the purification. I didn't have time or focus to help anyone else, so I could only watch as the battle raged around me.
Some tentacles grabbed Aurora's ankles, as well, but there was nothing I could do. I had to help destroy the source of this corruption. Aurora frantically swiped her sword at the tentacles, cutting down as many as she could as they sprouted from the ground. One of them latched on hard and dragged her to the ground before she could slice through it.
I watched helplessly as she rolled onto her back and hacked at the tentacle repeatedly. It gripped harder, and she let out a cry of pain. I almost stopped the purification to help, but she saw me and commanded me to keep purifying it. Reluctantly, I obeyed.
Aurora chopped faster. Another tentacle locked around her sword arm, pinning her to the ground.
"Kenten!" I shouted. He looked her way, and in that moment, his blade sang through the air, slicing the tentacles binding both her leg and arm. Inoio swooped in behind him, fighting and purifying as he could. Aurora scrambled to her feet and swung her sword wildly as Kenten and Inoio continued their battle with the tentacles.
In the heat of battle, I felt a blow from materialized miasma. It caused me to stumble and slowed me down, but it didn't stop me. I immediately checked on Aurora, only to find her god had cast a protective ward to shield her against the violent blast.
Suddenly, an ankh appeared near the plant I had summoned. Ino had joined in the purification.
As more holy symbols materialized, I could slowly feel the tide of the battle turning. The abyssal was lashing out, trying to spread miasma anywhere it could, but Aurora's god was helping to purify the miasma as it appeared.
Keeping pace with the miasma was difficult. I had to continually regrow the plant as the abyssal infected and destroyed parts of it.
Still, combined with the other purification rituals, I felt we must have been making progress. I turned in time to see Aurora studying the various holy symbols. Suddenly, her aura activated, she channeled energy, and then she commenced an incantation.
Her god transformed into a spear, which she grabbed and planted into the abyssal's heart. Its tentacles tried to pull the spear away, but Kenten and Isander fought them back. Aurora gripped the spear tighter, twisted it in the thing's heart, and channeled as much purifying energy as a new exalted could muster.
She saw an opportunity and went for it. She cut a tentacle that was snaking around Kenten's calf and then returned to the spear, pushing it with all of her strength. Tenshi moved close and generated a small sanctuary shield around us to keep the tentacles at bay. I refocused my purification efforts onto the spear, rather than on the plant. The others joined in, purifying both Aurora and the spear.
After what felt like ages, the abyssal let out a scream and dissipated into a silver vapor. Before I could even think or understand what had happened, we were back outside of the castle's grounds.
The God of Mysteries, back in his rat form, lay on the ground. Meanwhile, the castle, like its monstrous inhabitant, slowly wisped away. A gate opened in the sky, and we watched as the castle evaporated into it.
Aurora's god wasn't moving or breathing, and no one seemed to know what to do. We were all completely drained. With a look of desperation in her eyes, Aurora rushed to her god's side. He had absorbed so much miasma. Maybe it had been too much for him to handle. She placed her hands on him, then stretched across his body, laying atop him, making as much physical contact with him as she could.
Soon, her body began to absorb the impurity from him. I watched as her skin turned ashen, but she didn't stop. She was determined to save her god, even if it cost her own life. None of the rest of us had any energy left to help. Feckless, we could only watch on as she turned into a fallen right before our eyes. I let out a cry of frustration as I tried to work my legs to reach her.
"Enough, I cannot save your soul if you go any further," her God said as he roused back to consciousness. "And I can connect back to heaven now."
He took her in his arms and stood up. A circle opened under his feet, and heavenly energy seeped up and purified the both of them. Aurora winced in pain, but I don't think she even had the energy left to scream. Moments later, she seemed to be losing consciousness, but her god only held her tighter.
A bright light shone around both of them. After a minute or so, her skin returned to its normal shade.
The God of Mysteries set her back on her feet and transformed into his ethereal form once more. He looked down and saw a rat near his feet. It was still alive, so he smiled.
"Well, next time... let's hope there's a squirrel nearby. It's small enough to hide my energy and more glorifying than a rat," the God of Mysteries said. "You completed a divine quest, so what are your wishes?"
"A combat familiar like the ones Miwa-sama has, another bag of ethereal pearls, a ward on my guild against untimely death for six days, please, and, uh… a flying squirrel pet, I guess…" she said.
"A four-day ward," he answered.
"Six! I saved your life just now!" she shouted.
"Well, then I'll be generous. Five days," the God of Mysteries conceded.
"Deal," she answered. "And don't forget the flying squirrel. That's as much for you as for me!"
The God of Mysteries nodded, and with a stroke of his hand, we all found our strength returned to us. Her god then disappeared. He left behind a generous bag full of ethereal pearls, and moments later, a divine tiger materialized in his place. Aurora immediately picked it up, pet it, and asked its name. Without delay, it sent a telepathic message
"Linawa, oh, what a nice name!" she said, hugging the tiger close. It purred, and she seemed thrilled to finally have a real familiar.
"Wait... did her god say next time?" asked Inoio.
"There are four more abyssals hiding in this kingdom," Aurora said as she held out a hand to her new familiar, trying to teach it to shake hands. Before her familiar figured it out, a flying squirrel sailed by, did a loop, landed on her familiar's head and gave her a high five. We all erupted into laughter as her familiar glanced around, wide-eyed and perplexed.
Once the laughter died down, she added, "The other gods have refused to deliver abyssal quests to their saints, so my God made it a divine quest for his own people to take."
"And you've already fought and won against one of these abyssals before?" Inoio asked.
"Two, actually," she responded. Inoio blinked several times, as if trying to wrap his head around doing this several times over. "But their castles were less implanted. And I was better prepared. My soul-weapons were enough to pierce through the first one's miasma, but it broke on the second. This time, my God served as the weapon directly."
"I assume future abyssals will only be more difficult," Kenten said. She nodded in response and laughed as her tiger learned how to shake her hand. He seemed to take pride in beating the flying squirrel to it this time.
"I wasn't sent on this mission, but I will squeeze out every ounce of divine favor I can obtain from my God," Kenten said. I had to agree with that sentiment. "I'll make sure to give back the ethereal pearl I owe you, too."
"I certainly will ask for more than ethereal pearls and familiars when I meet mine," Ijil chimed in. Aurora shrugged in response, and Ijil shook his head.
"You're really too selfless for your own good," said Inoio, scolding her. "You used a divine wish to protect the guild. I can't brag that I'd do that."
His attitude and tone were strange. "You should just use them to protect yourself," he grunted. Aurora didn't say anything, but responded with a small smile.
"My last divine wish about the guild's health expired three days ago," she explained. "Any longer and it would be tempting the God of Death to take his due amongst us."
"What will you ask of His Majesty then?" Inoio asked, to change the subject.
"His Majesty? Why would I even meet him?" Aurora replied.
"Oh, you know, because you saved his country from an abyssal, for example," answered Inoio.
"Look, I really don't like to go places and deal with the frigging etiquette and all. I'll get paid for that mission by the guild, so why should I bother myself with dealing with all that pomp and circumstance?" she asked, frowning. "It's Master's job to go places and deal with nobles."
"If not for greed, fame, and the like… then why did you accept to join our guild, since you were freed from ties with the guilds after your parents' deaths?" Inoio asked.
"Yikes," Tenshi said. "Bringing up the Odille Massacre again already?"
Aurora nodded a bit, smiled, and pulling out a pocket mirror, gave it to Inoio. Several of us chuckled at Inoio's expense as he stared into the pocket mirror like it held some sort of secret. He became flustered and clapped the mirror closed.
All god-touched are beauties. Our gods grant us good looks and eternal youth to accomplish their deeds and draw people to their faiths. That said, the Sanctuary drew in powerful god-touched, whereas the other guilds were filled with humans or not so powerful god-touched. Even amongst Saints, their strength could vary greatly. Aurora was being snarky and not really answering Inoio's question by handing him the mirror.
"It's all for the officers' looks," Aurora said, laughing. Slowly, it seemed to dawn on Inoio, and his face turned red as he let out a small grunt. Looking perhaps guilty for teasing him, Aurora decided to tell him the truth. "More seriously, it's because I am simply unable to return to a civilian life."
I chuckled as I retrieved the pocket mirror from Inoio and gave it back it to Aurora. "Let's return home," I said. "We've got to tell Master about all this."
"Still, the King will hand out rewards, so what are you going to ask for?" insisted Inoio as we moved out.
"I don't know," she sighed.
He looked at her incredulously. "I'll try to help you think of something, then," he offered.
"Thanks," she replied. "Just make sure it's either something that's mobile or that I can easily carry. My whole life is going on missions, so I'm always on the move."
"That… doesn't give me much to work with," he replied. "I'll try to think of a mobile hobby for you, then."
Our guild moved forward, and Inoio dropped to the rear to join the other Holy Guard members. He still seemed to be suffering the aftereffects of exposure to so much miasma.
When the effects still hadn't cleared up by the time we made camp that night, Ino performed a purification ritual on Inoio and reported back to us that he believed him to be cleansed enough now.
Personally, I was concerned about how the miasma had affected him, but didn't say anything aloud.
Even in the thick of battle, Inoio seemed overly-impacted by the miasma. For example, He couldn't have been thinking very clearly to have made fun of Aurora's ribbon spell right after he saw how much damage it did to those heretics. She was still at the height of an adrenalin-fueled fight, and he thought that was the right time to mock her. His judgment must have been impaired because that action was not the marker of an astute warrior.
And then to try to carry her on a mission. I was glad Chiki smacked him. If someone tried to carry me on my own mission, I'd take their arms off first. I knew it wasn't entirely his fault, and I hoped we wouldn't run into any more trouble before we could get proper purifications back at our respective temples.
I found myself wondering why, out of all of us there, Inoio had been so affected by the abyssal's influence. We all had trouble functioning in that castle, but none of the rest of us had our basic judgment so impaired or so often looked that scared. I'm not saying I wasn't scared, but I think I at least didn't look it.
Well, at least no one had died on his watch. That was certainly an accomplishment for such a dangerous mission.
Aurora, though! Truthfully, Chiki kissing her and Inoio trying to pick her up made me realize that if I didn't make a move on her, someone else was certainly going to.
I stayed close by her side as we marched. I was amazed by so much of what she had done. It was hard to believe she had only been an adept when she joined us a few days ago. After seeing her in that castle, it was hard to believe she wasn't a Saint!
That she had so readily been willing to become a fallen to save her god said volumes about her devotion. When none of us had the energy to help, she didn't hesitate. I'm devout, but I don't think I've ever shared that kind of bond with my deity.
A number of times as we walked, Aurora caught me marveling at her. After the third time or so, she again gave me that coquettish wink. I tried to look less flustered, less caught off guard and straightened my shoulders. That only made her giggle and look away. I hoped that was progress on my part.
For the next day, our journey was uneventful, thankfully. None of us were in any shape to fight anymore. And thinking that there were four more of those abyssals just waiting out there for us was mentally exhausting. I was looking forward to a hot bath. Maybe Aurora would want to join me…