Mantle of the Gods

Purple electricity shot out of Aryne.

There were five bolts, one for each person who had defied him.

Gesai sat on top of Rix as she put her hands in front of her. The sparks from the crash blinded me for a moment. I blinked away the sparks and looked around. All four of them were still standing, though Tophua and the woman whose name I didn’t know looked like they had just barely blocked it.

Gesai grabbed myself and Rix and stood up. She started walking us backward. “Start up the gate and get in there. He won’t follow you into the dungeon. Hide until I come get you.” The redhead lowered her voice as she angled us towards the gate.

WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!?

There was another wave of compulsion as Aryne directed his power at us. Gesai pushed both of us down while she dropped to a knee. I could tell by the way she pushed us both that Rix wasn’t being affected by the compulsion either.

The wave ended abruptly and I saw that Whisper and Peregrine had started attacking Aryne. Whisper was slashing with a large silver sword while Peregrine was swinging a spiked mace. It amazed me that none of the Cultists were getting up to help, but it didn’t look like Aryne needed any help. He was able to handle both Tier Five Adventurers with little effort.

“What are you DOING???” Gesai hissed, “Get into the gate NOW!”

I got up and started up the gate. Gesai was still holding on to Rix. I didn’t blame her, the younger redhead looked like joining in that fight was the only thing she wanted to do.

I looked back at the gate and opened the menu, but when I tried to select something, It gave me an error and said the gate was already open.

“What’s taking so long?!?” Gesai looked at me, “Why aren’t you opening it?!?”

“It’s locked.” I pointed at it and backed away.

Gesai got up with her fist still holding Rix’ armor tight. I could already see the wheels in Rix's head turning, trying to figure out a way out of the older woman’s grasp.

“See?” I pointed at the error message, “It wasn’t me.”

“How is…” Gesai turned at the same time I did. We both looked at the shining purple ring in the middle of town.

“The seeds…” I was getting chills.

“They opened a portal to a floor in the dungeon.” Gesai pulled Rix closer to herself. We’ve got to shut the gate”

“Why don’t we just go through it?” I realized the problem with my question as soon as I asked it.

“Because that gate is probably connected to one of the low floors. It has to be for that thing to be there and no one has found it yet.”

“What are you doing?”

We turned and saw Tophua standing next to us.

“That ring opened a gate to a floor somewhere in the dungeon. Until it’s closed we can’t get Trent’s team out.” Gesai summarized the part of her plan that I’d assumed and skipped over the part about hiding us in there.

“How do we do that?’ Tophua scratched his head.

“There isn’t a ring on this side, but there should be on the other.” Rix was bouncing in Gesai’s grasp, “I can go invisible and get in the portal and shut it off from the other side.”

“No.” Gesai shook her head. “We have no idea what floor you’d wind up on. What if it’s in the seventies or eighties? You’d die in there.”

“Maybe I could stealth my way back.” Rix pulled against the older woman’s grasp.

“I’m not letting you do it! We’ll find another way!” Gesai pulled Rix closer to her.

“Um, guys…” I realized that Tophua wasn’t standing next to us. He’d got all the way to the portal and was standing next to it.

“That man is out of his mind!” Gesai started towards him, but stopped.

“Tell them I saved everyone!” Tophua saluted us and jumped in the portal.