Chapter 180: The Demon of the Orb. [Release Version] (Patreon)

“W-what is that!” Keith shouted at the thing that came out from my storage, but I ignored him as I wanted to know the answer to the question myself.

Mana Eyes!

_____________________________________________

Information not available

_____________________________________________

W-what?

<Listen to me, Hestia! That creature broke out from her prison! The seal broke! It now counts as ‘living,’ so [Storage Magic] automatically rejected it. You need to—>

But before I could finish hearing what Aurena wanted to say, my attention had to handle a different matter entirely first: the orb broke. Specifically, the slender arm coming from the black orb smashed the red orb onto the ground, cracking not only the earth but shattering the orb into a million glass pieces, releasing all the stored energy in a surprisingly powerful red explosion.

Keith shouted as he was blown away while I somehow managed to erect a defensive line through a combination of [Panzer] to protect me from the explosion, [Air Shield] to weaken the wind pressure, and [Molten Guard] to absorb and divert the majority of the attack. The multiple layered lava shields broke down first, crumbling into pieces before the explosion completely disintegrated the air shield around me.

Pinning my wings into the ground in front of me, the purple armor covering them managed to prevent major damage, but I could feel the pressure placed on them. The explosion eventually subsided but I wasn’t left unscathed.

<[Broken Right Wing (Minor)] [Broken Left Wing (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>

Scheiße!

The purple obsidian armor on it was completely gone in addition to multiple scales. Groaning at the damage I’d sustained, I looked over at the source of the attack while patching my wings up with healing magic, but that only lasted for a few seconds before my sensory skills immediately warned me of something coming from my back. The slazzigula!

With a flaming javelin in one of its hands, the giant monster roared out and leaped over to me, initiating its attack as I was still recovering from the orb’s explosion.

Fuck, you annoying ass!

Using my parallel minds, I prepared multiple [Wind Blast]s, knowing instinctively I couldn’t contest this attack head-on in my current form. Without the proper stats or enough setup time, my best option was to avoid it entirely.

Before I activated those spells, I looked over to the others at my party. My [Sanctuary] was still standing, thanks to Nishio and Ellaine layering multiple [Sapphire Membrane] and [Terra Wall] over everybody to protect themselves. Deactivating my barrier of light, I dashed towards them, embraced Kazumi, Kohaku, and Misaki while shouting at Nishio, Tamae, Ellaine, and Talon to “Grab on!”

Without thinking about it too hard, those four grabbed onto us while Quatre hid inside our shadow. As the slazzigula was descending dangerously close, I cast [Tailwind] on us and then the ten [Wind Blast] on my wings, blasting us away like an overcharged rocket.

<Tailwind: A spell that always provides favorable winds for the caster. Wind will blow in the direction the caster is facing, speeding up all outgoing projectiles and attacks while reducing the damage of incoming attacks>

It was a simple spell for [Storm Magic Lv. 3] but it massively improved the effectiveness of [Wind Blast]. In fact, it improved the [Wind Blast]s a bit too much.

In my rush, I activated too many spells, and lost control and balance mid-flight. As I was about to crash land, I swerved my body around to protect everybody else, colliding against the ground and letting go of the others. Everybody besides Misaki, was able to react and soften their landing, but thankfully Quatre caught her. Breaking my crash was easy enough with how nimble I’ve become.

My eyes shot open at what happened next. Instead of the slazzigula slamming his giant flaming javelin into the ground, the arm coming out from the black orb suddenly summoned six giant tentacles, assimilating together into a massive tree trunk-size fist.

With the roars of a humanoid salamander and the weird oozing sounds of the giant fist jumping around to create swinging momentum, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed at this movie-like scene. As if time for everything else stopped, the two clashed.

A fiery explosion was released from the impact, scorching the arm into ashes while knocking the slazzigula backward from the recoil. The resulting attack hurled a flaming shockwave towards us, forcing Nishio to cast [Sapphire Membrane]. However, as Ellaine and I couldn’t read his mind, our reflexes already made us construct small, easily-breakable [Terra Wall]s. It dulled the shockwave, making sure Nishio’s defenses held strong.

The amount of stuff this party had to do in the last few seconds was just nerve-wracking.

“Fire consumes fire!” When the flames and steam settled, all of us could audibly hear the enthusiastic cries of Shiterno’s followers shouting in the distance, possibly coming closer to our location.

“Those damn fire-humpers! We’ll be in trouble once they group up,” Talon stated, to which I had to agree. Not ‘cause of the dangers these cultists could do to me, but what they could do to the group while I was distracted by two giant troublemakers.

Looking over at the small crater the explosions created, I could see the slazzigula standing up, clutching its head with both arms and crying out in pain. It was wailing around, stumbling without any rest outside of the times it punched the ground.

I was wary of what the slazzigula would do next, but Aurena’s voice suddenly entered my mind again.

<Don’t let that thing touch you Hestia!>

Huh?

[Foresight] and [Danger Perception] jolted me backward, narrowly dodging a spear-like tentacle from piercing me. Turning around while shooting a [Lightning Bolt], I saw the arm flip itself and the attached demon-orb over my spell before cleaving the [Sapphire Membrane] with a karate chop. With Aurena’s words stamped into my mind, I used [Terra Wall] to try and launch the arm away from me; yet, it was stubborn, grabbing hold of a piece of rock with a hard grip as flew away.

Tentacles formed from the black orb using mana and, like an octopus, it began crawling towards me at an agile rabbit’s pace, creeping me the fuck out. As it closed in on me, I returned to the tried and tested—detonating all my released scale-dust, aiming to destroy it outright.

The arm tried to block my attack by turning into a shield, but my continuous explosion proved too much. As it laid on the ground, the arm jerked around uncontrollably from the fire damage. The burn wounds ruined the image of the appearance of the tanned arm and, from the looks of it, it seemed it was trying to regenerate the damage I had done, but couldn’t.

That reminded me—after blocking the attack from the slazzigula, the arm reappeared in front of me as beautiful as the first time I saw it, showing literally no signs of having fought anything. If the arm possessed a healing factor faster than that of a troll, then it would explain what happened. Too bad for the arm, while my Main Job was [Crimson-Scaled Dreadgiver], nothing damaged by my scale-dust flame could heal!

<Sever the arm with your flames! Don’t touch it! Put the orb back into your storage the moment you do, I’ll reseal it there!>

Understood! Ignite!

With an impromptu fire blade constructed with [Pyrokinesis] and a simple fire spell, I hacked the arm off the orb. Quickly picking up the latter, I threw it right into my storage without delay.

<I’ll be accessing your storage now to reseal that creature back into her prison. Please, give me your consent, Hestia!>

Consent given!

Silence. Nothing happened, but my focus was razor-sharp at this point, ignoring anything not concerning that orb and Aurena. When Aurena’s voice finally reappeared, I let out a sigh of relief.

<It’s sealed … doubly so, to prevent something like that from happening again.>

Thank goodness, that scared me … Anyway, what the hell was that supposed to be Aure—Goddess Aurena! [The Light] prevented Aurena from seeing what I could see if I blocked her, but it technically didn’t stop her from reading my mind. I nearly spoke to her as if I was thinking, whoops.

<That red orb—that rebellion orb. It’s an annoying catalyst created by the demonkin to agitate dungeons, acting similar to a piece of bait to lure in monsters. Demonkin use these orbs to fight inside dungeons more efficiently.>

That doesn’t answer why an arm grew out of the orb; in fact, if you could have done something like reseal the orb like just now, why couldn’t you have destroyed that damn orb earlier? This wouldn’t have happened if you did!

<I apologize, Hestia, but sealing an orb and destroying the thing inside the orb are two entirely different matters. As you remembered, I placed my seal on it when you visited my shrine, correct? The rebellion orb agitated and broke through both Elder Marsven’s and my seals, releasing some of the demon’s mana sealed inside. I fixed Elder Marsven’s seal and mine, in fact, I reinforced them to prevent this from happening again until I meet you. Please trust me when I say that I did not expect a human to get their hand on a rebellion orb like this. I can only assume the demonkin are making faster progress than I thought …>

What are they doing here?

<This is not the time to speak about this, Hestia. You have other issues to handle first. That rebellion orb seemed to have agitated the fauna in this dungeon. Monsters on the top of the food chain in this ecosystem have become more aggressive than usual, for example, that giant monster before you and the boss monster guarding the dungeon’s core. I’m personally not an expert in dungeons, but if my past logs are correct, that giant Rachonoid is aiming to break out of the dungeon and escape to the surface.>

W-what!

<The people on the surface will not be prepared to handle this elderly B rank monster and her spawn. She even has a Territory nobody but you can endure. Only a Territory can counter a Territory directly, but, thankfully, its mana release is a pure fire element. Goodness sake, Elder Danterno’s blessing will actually become useful here. Hestia, I want you to handle this. Prevent that monster from destroying the nearby human settlement.>

Shiterno? What do—

<Divine Quest: Molten Core Rachonoid Extermination — Prevent the destruction of Cedaraille and the majority of the population there

Quest Giver: Origin Goddess of Light, Healing, Miracles and Kinship, Aurena

Description: Subjugate the Rachonoid seeking to escape to the surface of the dungeon. You will not make it to the surface in time, so seek to return to the surface and destroy it, post haste The rachonoid is an elderly female spider whose lair was filled with her spawn, which are now following their mother. Make your name known as my Champion using your and your allies’ powers!

Rewards: +1 additional [Idol] song slot, [Venerated Saintess] proficiency gain, +1 level>

<Please, accept it, Hestia.>

This whole Territory talk is only making me more nervous, okay? Dammit! Yeah, got it, I’m on the job!

<You have chosen [Divine Quest: Molten Core Rachonoid Extermination]. With the blessing of your championed God, may you be successful in your Quest!>

Okay, now time to find the wa—

“Hestia, wake up! The arm!”

The time I needed to speak with Aurena was far faster than what my body perceived. With [High-Speed Calculation Lv. 1] and [Though Acceleration Lv. 4], I could think faster than most people and, with the fact that Aurena’s messages were near instantaneous, only a few seconds probably went by in the real world. And that was the issue—I was too focused.

Waking up from my thoughts, I noticed how my [Foresight] and [Danger Perception] were ringing inside my head, warning me of the severed arm, which was still moving for some reason. It was too close to me, and I couldn’t avoid it in time. This was bad!

“Hestia!”

As I reflexively tried to push my body into action, the sight of the arm leaping up, aiming to touch me, made me remember Aurena’s words “Don’t let that thing touch you Hestia!” over and over again. As cold sweat began to break out across my body, the arm came even closer and closer but my muscles weren’t ready to move yet. I thought I’d fucked up, but a savior came swooping in.

Holding onto the shield we received from that treasure chest from floor 14, Ellaine jumped in front of me and the arm, protecting me with her shield. I was elated to see her but that immediately turned into concern for her the moment the shield broke apart from the arm’s attack.

Ellaine cried out as she bumped into me from the recoil and seeing the arm grabbing her left hand. With one quick motion, the hand tightened its grip, crushing Ellaine’s hand in the process.

“YAAAARGHHHHH!“

I screamed, “Ellaine! ELLAINE!”

With rage filling my body now, I took out my spear from my storage and struck the arm with it, freeing Ellaine from its grip and pinning it on the ground. Dreadflame Breath! I expelled flames able to melt a high ogre’s onto the arm at a point-blank distance, cremating this thing before turning back to Ellaine. Fixing her arm was my highest priority.

“Ellaine, why didn’t you use [Terra Wall]?” I asked her frantically as my parallel minds went to work, repairing Ellaine’s bones and skin.

“I-I apologize,” she forced out despite the pain. “T-there was no time. You just stood still and I was standing behind you. T-there was no time for me to cast a spell, and my legs moved by themselves.”

Was this my fault?! Verdammt! Aurena! Aurena! Goddess Aurena! The arm touched Ellaine!

<Calm down, Hestia. The situation would have been dire if it had touched you, someone whose soul hasn’t fully been repaired yet. You were the most vulnerable from being possessed by that demon. Your human companion Ellaine saved you from that fate. Aside from that broken hand, there should be nothing to worry about.>

Nothing to worry about? Are you kidding me? First, that thing appeared because you didn’t warn me fast enough and then you didn’t tell me it could still move? Fuck off!

<I … You might think we gods are omnipotent but we aren’t. I was preoccupied with another matter. I do apologize, though. I didn’t know the race of the demon inside the orb. I forgot what they could—>

Is that supposed to be an excuse? Don’t give me that crap! You’re the damn Goddess of Light here! You didn’t fix this issue by destroying the damn orb and now you’re giving me this crap? You’re the one who should know about demons, not me! Fucking hell!

<I-I didn’t mean to—You’re right, I should have done better since I am a goddess … This is my identity. I apologize … I shall leave you alone for now, but please, stop the rachonoid from hurting people.>

Somebody has to do it.

<… Remember the Territory. May the light guide you.>

And Aurena’s voice stopped. Good riddance, I thought when that happened, but something inside me thought I was being too harsh on her. However, dwelling on this issue would be repeating the same mistake I just did that brought Ellaine in harm’s way. Tamae and the rest rushed over, asking me what just happened.

“We have a problem,” I said, having calmed myself down enough. “That giant spider we saw from before, yeah, that thing is making its way up to the surface! It’s a dungeon break aiming to escape from the dungeon.” I then sent them the Divine Quest I just received from Aurena to inform them of the situation.

“A B rank!” Tamae exclaimed. “Hestia-chan, we might have been able to take down that rank C easily but that was with teamwork against a single magma golem. A rank B with a bunch of its kids is far too strong for us.”

“We’ve never faced a B rank monster before and, without a strategy, our party won’t be able to function properly,” Nishio reasoned. “We don’t even know what a Territory is supposed to be.”

“Don’t worry about that, that’s why the Quest was given to me. Aurora can handle this. You guys want to see your Sensei again, right? Well, you guys will be surprised when Big Bad Wolf-Sensei appears.” I smirked, trying to hide my own anxiousness. “We need to reunite with them and Yorshka. Whether she is involved in any of the church’s issues is irrelevant for now. We need the help of a rank A adventurer.”

“Hey, we have some problems of our own,” Talon suddenly came over. He probably overheard everything but that wasn’t a problem for now. “Look.”

Talon pointed at the crowd gathering outside of Nishio’s [Sapphire Membrane], all wearing robes similar to the one Keith had. “Fire consumes fire!” they all shouted before cursing the water barrier Nishio materialized, calling him out as “The water bitch’s lapdog!” or “Plesia’s servants must burn!”

Amazing …

Seeing the situation, I pulled Ellaine to her feet. “Thank you, Ellaine. I’m pretty sure you saved my life by doing that. Do you think you can fight?”

The pain from her hand was gone, replaced by relief. “I’m Aurora’s fourth member. I might not be as strong as you, Saori, or Tasianna, but, regardless, I will help however I can.”

I nodded to her bravery. “Good! You’ve seen how big that spider was, right? There’ll be a big paycheck for us after we deal with it!”

At the same time I clapped Ellaine’s shoulder, the mob outside the barrier seemed to have gone even more wild, filled with religious fervor as they kept chanting “Fire consumes fire” over and over again while making way for somebody to step forward. There, a one-armed man with a head scarred from fire raised his arm up, showing off a bright glowing ruby ring.

“Keith …” Talon murmured.

“Look at me, for I have been scarred! Burned! I have tasted the sublime feeling of being burned alive! A fire strong enough to break my resistances! I have been renewed and become even stronger! Fire consumes fire!” Keith preached, any semblance of sanity long gone from his eyes. “Before us is the Crimson Saintess, named for the crimson hue of her scales and flames! She was denounced as a heretic by the Pantheon of Fire, judged to be executed at our hands by the God of War and Carnage, Jistrum! Among her are the followers of Aurena, Plesia and Marsven, feeble defenders for the traitor! To grant our gods more strength, let us perform battle! Cast your fire wildly, my disciples! With every cast and offering we present, we shall become stronger! FIRE CONSUMES FIRE!”

“FIRE CONSUMES FIRE!”

“… You guys think you can handle this?” I asked everybody in front of me.

“Let me show you the real power of illusion magic, not the petty tricks meant for my customers,” Talon announced without hesitation.

“Everybody, please get ready,” Tamae announced to her party. “This is exactly what Lady Yorshka has trained us for! To fight on our own when it matters the most! Our reluctant selves from a year ago have been removed, tempered by all the battles we have faced until now! We must fight them to survive, and survive we will! We will return home!”

“Yeah!”

“Quatre!” Ellaine called for Saori’s fourth garm. “You and me, okay, boy. Our hunt begins now.”

“Grrrrra!” Quatre growled in agreement.

Good … Now, it’s time for my fight.

“Thank you very much for waiting for me.” Leaving the [Sapphire Membrane], I approached the quietly staring slazzigula, having waited patiently as I was talking with everybody. The madness it showed before was gone, probably ‘cause of the destruction of the rebellion orb. Honestly, for a monster born inside a dungeon, it showed quite the intelligence.

[“First things first, I don’t want to fight you. I don’t have anything against you. Can we please not have this duel?”]

The issue why I couldn’t help the rest with breaking through the congregation of fire mages was due to this fellow here. I could sense that it wanted to fight against me, and I knew it wouldn’t let me go without a fight. If it was intelligent, then I thought I could reason with it.

However, it reciprocated my question by cracking its head and knuckles, readying itself in a combat stance. It saw me not only as a challenge but a threat, like an annoyed territorial lion. Every time I tried diplomacy, it always broke down immediately. It kinda sucked.

Humanize.

Mana mist came out of my body, wrapping me in its veil while I transformed back into a dragon. Like an honorable samurai, the slazzigula allowed me to transform back without any issues, despite knowing I was far stronger in this form. Well, it wasn’t like a dragon was supposed to understand some random giant salamander.

Once my transformation was done, I roared to accept his challenge, readying myself for the fight by pointing my razor-sharp tail at it. Height-wise, the slazzigula was slightly taller than me while it stood upright but shorter when it stood on all four legs. It was a battle between two house-sized lizards.

Fighting isn’t the priority here. I just need to delay this thing long enough for somebody to figure out a way out. Stopping that spider is the mission.

We stared at each other in silence as the battle between Ellaine, the students, and Talon began against the Shiterno followers. I could hear the sounds of magic being cast entering my ears.

Fast now! Purple Flash! Symphonie des Feuergottes!

<[Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Allegro)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>

Let the symphony begin!