In the center of the circular altar, inside the dark room of the cathedral, three teenagers opened their eyes and sat up straight with panicked expressions on their faces as they inspected their bodies.
In stark contrast to their previous state, their bodies now bore no trace of the injuries that had previously plagued them. A renewed sense of vitality coursed through their veins, leaving them bewildered yet undeniably relieved.
However, their confusion deepened as they realized they sat in the same spot where their lives had been ruthlessly taken only moments ago.
"You guys!" exclaimed the blonde girl, launching herself toward her perplexed friends with tears of joy forming under her eyes. "You really are okay…"
The other girl, still grappling with the surreal outcome, held her warmly. "Angie… W-what happened?" she asked. But Angie was unable to explain the sequence of events she had just witnessed.
"You were all killed to bring me here… Sorry about that, kids…" interrupted Morgana, her voice carrying a tinge of remorse, grabbing the attention of the whole party. However, none of them seemed to know how to react to her words, except for one.
A boy with disheveled dark blue-ish hair, wearing a white robe that had been tainted by his blood, stared at Morgana with his eyes widened. "T-that means… Y-you are the Demon Lord?" he muttered between stammers that stemmed from his deeply rooted fear, sharing his worries with the rest of his freshly revived friends.
"Ugh, again with the Demon Lord stuff…" said Morgana with a nonchalant, carefree tone. "I have no idea what you are talking about, kid. I'm a trickster, nothing more."
The party of teenagers stayed silent, still bewildered at the fact they were alive.
"Sh-she saved us!" exclaimed Angie, but her friends couldn't piece together all the information.
"Anyways, let's get out of here. This cathedral gives me the creeps…" said Morgana with a very unusual tone for someone considered a 'Demon Lord' by others, making her way slowly toward the colossal double doors that exited the cathedral.
Angie tried to speak up to warn her about the weight of the doors and how it required numerous individuals pushing to get them open. But her worries were subsequently disregarded as Morgana placed her hands on both doors and pushed them open without much resistance, allowing the dawn's sunlight to enter the cathedral's room.
The group snapped out of their perplexion and quickly stood up, making use of their renewed vitality, and left the cathedral right behind Morgana, who stood at the last step of the path before the forest's grass.
"I'm not a fan of walking barefoot on grass… 'Admin'..." she commanded, making a peculiar virtual-like interface materialize before her.
She scrolled through a menu with her index finger, then pushed the button on the screen with the label "Set 1".
Morgana's body radiated a luminous white glow, momentarily dazzling the group of teenagers. When their sights adjusted, they noticed Morgana's outfit had changed entirely.
Her previous attire of long silky pants and an oversized tank top was gone. Instead, she wore a black leather jacket with a sleek black corset underneath. Ornated pants that stuck to her figure and sneaker boots that covered a small portion of her shins.
A dark circlet encircled her ring finger, with a black choker necklace bearing the symbol of death to complement it. As she gracefully raised her arms and pulled her hair back to tie it into a ponytail, she revealed her beautiful red crystal earrings that perfectly matched the hue of her eyes.
She turned her head and found the four adolescents staring at her with dumbfounded expressions, then calmly scanned her surroundings. "Do any of you kids know where the hell we are?" but none stepped up to talk, save for Angie.
"This place is called Greenshade Woods…" she said with a newfound sense of confidence.
"Greenshade Woods, huh?" responded Morgana while turning her head back to the floating interface in front of her and pushing the button in the corner, which showed an extensive and detailed world map on the screen.
"Hmm, it seems like the world has changed quite a bit… Hey, can you guys come closer and show me where the closest town is!?" said Morgana without directing her gaze towards the teenagers, who stood in place from both fear and confusion. Except once again for Angie, who, as soon as she stepped forward, was suddenly halted by the dark blue-ish haired boy.
"Stop…" muttered the boy as low as he could to prevent Morgana from listening to him. However, Angie was determined, and after shaking off his friend's hand from her shoulder, she stood next to Morgana and pointed at the closest town.
"This is the one. It should be a one-day walk from here…"
"Oh, Scar Town!" exclaimed Morgana joyfully. *Man, I'm glad they are still around…*
"D-do you know that place?"
"I used to have some friends there. Although it's been a long time, so unless they gained immortality, I doubt they'll be around," she said with her carefree tone while gracefully placing her hand on the girl's head and thanking her, making the blonde-haired girl blush as she felt a warmth spread across her cheeks.
"This is quite bothersome, though. To return to The Underworld, I'll have to travel to the eastern continent…"
"Y-you are going back to The Underworld!?" exclaimed the blue-haired boy, barely able to finally raise his voice.
"That was the plan, yeah." she responded. "What are you guys doing?"
The party exchanged looks with each other, not knowing if it was safe for them to share that information with a being that had just arrived from the realm of the dead. However, one of them had their mind made up about Morgana already.
"I guess we are going back to Scar Town… We were trying to raise our ranks in the Adventurer's Guild quickly, but the guild master wouldn't give us harder quests." explained Angie. "So, we ventured here to train, but…"
Morgana redirected her gaze towards the other kids, who were still wary around her.
'Appraisal.' She thought, opening other interfaces with information about each of the teenagers right before her eyes. However, compared to the one she used to change clothes and open the world map, these were invisible to the rest. 'Hmm, they are all level 10. This place is supposed to be a level 20-40 area…'
"I'll accompany you to town. It'd be kind of a waste if I saved you all and then left you to die out here…" said Morgana, her voice filled with authority and reassurance.
Angie seemed to accept Morgana's proposition quickly. At the same time, the rest of the party exchanged quiet looks with each other again, and taking into account that they had lost their weapons, they nodded with confidence and accepted her help.
'Did she say she was a trickster earlier?' Thought the blue-haired kid, closely following behind.