(C1) Below the temple (Patreon)

“Welp, At least we know now that the other path worked as well.” Ryder stated as the four of them started to climb down the ladder and saw the other three run over thin air above them, under each of their steps a small dark cloud seemingly supporting their whole weight.

“Yes, we knew that, but I still don’t think our decision was wrong, just because the other thing is possible.” Oliver responded a bit shaky on the ladder, but still making decent progress nonetheless. “Also, I am just very curious about what is down below. Feels like a mystery that hasn’t been solved for years.”

The four of them agreed pretty unanimously on that. Ryder, Oliver, Cry and Akira all took the ladder for similar reasons and were now almost halfway down it. At least it looked like halfway down, because there was a thick blanket of fog that made it pretty impossible to see below a certain point.

And yet, one after another, the four priests breached it one by one, with the heavy fog wrapping around their bodies tightly as they, pretty much blindly, continued to climb down the ladder.

“W-What the…? My body feels… like it’s… So weird…!” Akira stuttered through the fog, though Cry immediately barked back. “Yeah mine is transforming too. But what did you expect? This is a Nagisa dungeon. Did you expect taking the ladder wouldn’t change you in any way?”

“So this is what it feels like…” Akira let out, trying to briefly find a stable position to touch more of his body. Though when Ryder almost ran into him because he was not moving, Ryder added. “And you better not slow down. Because I am pretty sure that the longer we stay in this fog, the more drastic this gets…”

And so they all also plopped out of the fog at the bottom shortly after in the same order they came in, still climbing down the very, very long ladder. And the end of climbing was in sight now, although not what they expected. There was what looked like a small village at the bottom, floating on what looked like a massive piece of rock.

The cliff wall also was no longer behind the ladder, so they were just all climbing a ladder that connected to nothing but the ground, and was still stable for some reason.

“Huh, so we all have changed a little bit through the fog.” Oliver was the one who brought up the subject first when they reached the bottom, all looking at their own bodies briefly in response.

Considering how much of a sausage party the initial meeting had been, now every present person had a very androgynous look, with all of their beards gone, their broad shoulders narrowed and even each of their chests bulging just a bit more. For now everyone was still male, the question was, for how long…

“Oh? Are you new here in the temple city?” A female voice asked, approaching the four priests from behind, having clearly seen them climb down the ladder. “It's rare that we get four guests all at once, so are you looking for something in particular?”

“That is convenient.” Ryder stepped forward towards the lady, who on second glance definitely wasn’t human. With long ears on the top of her head, a wagging tail and what looked like furry paws as hands she definitely looked like a dog girl. A kobold, if you will. Though that only distracted Ryder for a second. "Uhm, yes. We wanted to ask if there was any fast way to get up to the temple from here? Because we are kinda in a hurry.”

“A fast way to the temple?” The girl thought about it for a second, then started to size the four of them up a bit more. Finally, she gave a stern nod and continued. “We do have the express start ‘fling em up’ cannon that is usually only for Harpies and other winged monster girls to get a fast start to get up there and penetrate the fog. But you four have Nagisa’s protection, so it should be fine if you use it. Should I take you to it? Would be sad because I was so looking forward to showing you around the city.”

The four priests quickly cast glances at themselves before answering…quite divided.

• Take the cannon (Choice 1,1) 
• Take a city tour and maybe find a better way up (Choice 1,2) 

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