White Flower, Black Feather

Six Claustrophobic Months

They had been moving for an hour after the barriers vanished, before she tiredly cawed at them after flying from branch to branch, forwards and backwards, making sure that nothing was getting close to them

“Let’s rest here” her spell followed soon after and the trees rustled, making sure anyone that didn’t understood her, stopped for enough time so that the rest could translate

Brenna was very mentally drained and wanted to sleep soon, but considering that the two women near her had been discussing something for a while, neither being the one covered in blood, she knew better than going to a higher branch, and waited for them to finish

Some of the people, in the time where she went to summon Sapphire, had found some rough cloth sacks (Though they might have been some of their clothes tied together instead), and had tried to open the barrels that Roxanne told her had yucky raw meat inside. None of them had actually taken any of that meat, for reasons she didn’t wanted to know, but those sacks were very useful to carry a lot of the fruits that the “Meteorite” gave them

Which were being given to everyone since she called for the stop, including Roxanne who had been jumping in and out of the river that moved to a tunnel in the cliffs, in order to get the blood out of her fur. It was blood from a boar, as she learned the moment she got out of the tunnel ridding the shoulder of the young woman, to see a bunch of guys trying to drag the large carcass…

The woman that had come back for the girl had screamed at them, before all of them just ran with the rest looking very embarrassed…

“What happened to the Ruler?” of course, she didn’t understood a word of what she had said so far, which is why another woman was acting as a translator between the two of them

“Miriam won” she wasn't the only one that could understand her, which is why her words quickly were passed to everyone else

Making all of them celebrate loudly…

The rustling of the trees, and her own caws for cautiousness, quickly made all of them lower their volume, but none of them looked worried or afraid. She just needed to see a certain tail wagging a storm, making the children, and those around them, smile in happiness, to confirm that everyone was still in a joyful mood…

Except for the one holding a mangled heart…

“Is she going to join us soon?!” her translator, one of the few blondes in the group, and someone she really should ask for her name, continued with the questions

Which made Brenna felt like screaming at that particular one… but did her best to keep her feathers from ruffling as she read the message again…

“The trees tell me that, during the fight, Miriam became trapped inside the Dungeon that lurks under this whole peninsula” the trees shook at that moment to confirm her words, but her message continued without interruptions “They are going to tell her of our location the moment she manages to escape the place…”

Less than half of the people, those that understood her, froze when they heard that… but their reaction made the rest shiver and look at her…

‘Crap…’ which made her get angry at herself for not realizing that, to them, she was nothing more that a crow… she might have been the one that released them, but Miriam was the one that… ‘Ah…’ she opened her Grimoire

‘Please help me with this!’ and prepared before any of them could do something

“But she has left me with this!” she called out to them before pulling Sapphire out of the Grimoire

The glowing weapon illuminated their surrounding the moment she appeared, floating in the air as everyone gasped at her sudden appearance

“This is Sapphire, the sword of the Fourth Ruler of Death! We will keep you safe until she returns! Following Miriam’s desire to make sure all of you are free”

Brenna almost cawed in relief when the protection of the ‘Small group’ was added to the last section of Sapphire’s page, but Sapphire vanished after making a cut in the air, and once everyone looked relieved by the sharp sound she made, because there was no reason for her to waste any more of the power she had stored at the time

A deep breath later, she rejected the idea of counting all of them, because she didn’t wanted to think of them in terms of numbers

Snap!

Crack

Not that she would have been able to do it, a branch of a nearby tree fell with a loud snapping sound and shattered into many fragments. A quick glance revealed that the bark of the tree quickly covered the area where it snapped, as if that branch never existed

Before she or anyone else could react to that, a familiar buzzing sound filled the night, and as she prepared to bring Sapphire out one more time, the trees rustled

-Don't worry, they are here to help, but you need to tell the people some rules-

‘Ah…?’ as she kept reading the next message, her confusion slowly diminished and soon she was making another bubble to tell everyone what was going on

“Also, the forest will loan a few things for our journey to a city…” she kept the first message short, just so panic didn’t grew out of control. Once she saw people talking in the language she didn’t knew, she made the next one at the same time a lot of ladybugs that looked like Sunny appeared, the difference being the leaf coming out of them “But you must follow the next rules. First, the stones belong to the forest, you must not try to take them out with you”

Each of the ladybugs was carrying a rock that was bigger than them, but those weaved without problem between the large group and landed on the ground. Most of those rocks were engraved, the exception being some, that soon formed a near perfect circle, before those ladybugs started to carry the broken branch’s fragments inside it, making a pile

“Second, the only ones to see combat must be Roxanne, Sapphire and myself” at first she thought that the stones were going to be for more bonfires, but the ladybugs just flipped the stones and walked around them, buzzing softly when some of the children started to grab them, tickling them with their wooden legs as they walked on their hands and arms “This is not for you to earn levels. After you arrive to a city, you can come back inside the forest, but for now, just worry about staying safe”

She stopped the message there, mostly because the third thing she had to say was… an uncomfortable one…

‘These things are getting warm!’ but Roxanne’s reaction to the stones spread around the group quickly, and she decided to just said it

“Third… there are two cities where you can go, both are on the east coast of the peninsula, the closest one is in the northern side of the coast and is populated by humans. The other one is populated by humanoids” at least she got confirmation that the city her Helper mentioned before still existed… “The humans will kill me on sight, so we can only take any of you closer to that place, I can’t make sure you get inside” everyone that understood her froze “But I can go inside the humanoid city…”

Brenna preened her feathers in a combination of nervousness, annoyance and fear… wanting to scream at everyone and everything that was making her give them such an ultimatum-

The man from before spoke loudly with anger coating his voice, once the translation finished. Everyone looked at him as he… ranted. That, was the only way she could describe what he was doing due to the language barrier

But soon other men and women spoke loudly too, cheering and agreeing to what he said, leaving her more and more confused until the blonde looked at Brenna

“Sol just reminded us, that all of us were brought here by ship” she hesitated but continued “Which means that, either they have their own port, or, we arrived at that human city before…” she gestured to the direction they just came from

She cawed and nodded, seeing the point she was trying to make

“So, we are going with you, no matter how far away it is-” meaning that she wasn't surprised by what she said, but she quickly was asked something by a few other people around “Eh… but…! Why can’t we go to the north? That’s where the Line is… right?”

The trees rustled just as the ladybugs buzzed with them… discussing something for a while, before her Helper translated… and she got angry again

“That’s because Miriam has enemies to the north, they were clients of the slavers and not long ago, she caused them a lot of harm, and are likely to retaliate if your connection to her is revealed…” the group flinched or squeaked in reaction, but her next message caused silence “There is also the fact that I can’t get close to the cities to the north until I become a humanoid… perhaps not even after that…”

It was an awkward silence that created more questions in everyone that looked at the branch where she was…

“H-h-how… are you… talking…?” someone else managed to ask, fear and confusion obvious in his face…

…

And she looked up…

‘Nothing to say…?’ but nothing happened after a few seconds… no messages, no comments, nothing…

“Miriam and I were humans” so she just started talking through her spell “We both were killed on the same day, and when we woke up, we were a snake and a crow… I have no idea of what happened, that’s basically all I know”

Brenna looked back at them, almost laughing at the expressions some of them had

“You are going to become a Ruler too?” someone else recovered before anyone else translated

Caw…?

“I hope not… that title sound a bit embarrassing…” people chuckled at her tone, so, when they started to talk to each other, she was hoping that everything was done for that night as some of them finally started to eat

Buzz!

But a ladybug called for her while flying up to her branch

-Please ignite the bonfire-

‘Huh… are you sure about that…?’

Buzz!

‘All right then…’ she couldn’t believe that she got a confirmation from her Helper, and wondered for a moment if she was having a dream that was about to turn into a nightmare, but nothing happened once she made the fire…

Other than the girl holding the heart finally seemed to react to her surrounding… she walked towards the fire, making several of the women around to gasp in realization, which worried Brenna by a lot, even if she just knelt near it

Before she threw the mangled organ into the fire and looked down to the ground with closed eyes…

-Please make a ball of water and drop it above her head-

‘What…?!’ Brenna’s confusion didn’t lasted long, some of the women were walking to the river (The Terror Stone that Miriam made was placed there to scare the fish away), while the rest explained things to the others, with the men nodding and moving away, staying at the edges of the warm made by the engraved stones, letting only women and children, of both genders, be near the kneeling woman…

Who made no sound once the first woman arrived carrying water in her hands and poured it on top of her head. To Brenna it seemed that she deliberately aimed so that some of the water fell on her bloody hands

That action, was repeated by the next woman, and the next, and the next. After seeing ten women do the same thing, and the girl remaining immobile there, she floated her own ball of water and tried to make it so that her spell washed as much blood as possible… but that didn’t stopped the… ritual…? Even with her leaving the girl almost clean

‘I don’t want details…’ her words made Roxanne get closer to her, under the branch with her head tilted in silence

The message ended there. It was, obviously, a deliberate action to make her squirm

‘Ugh…’ and it worked

‘What’s going on…?’ her familiar finally asked sounding as tired as Brenna was feeling ‘Is that how humans clean each other? It doesn’t seems to be working very well. Why she just doesn’t jumps into the river?’

‘This is something that they need to do…’ she looked at Roxanne before looking at the guys standing, and mostly looking, away from the kneeling girl… ‘Come with me, you need to do it too’

‘Eh…?’

Despite her confusion, Roxanne’s first attempt was enough to pour a good amount of water on top of the girl, she used a bowl made of light to hold the water. And as the ritual keep going, Brenna did another one near the end of it

When asked why she did that by the blonde (Called Nai), she answered that it was Miriam’s share

Once that was translated, the girl started crying

/////

Again…

A monster-like thing got close to her in her sleep, waking her up to get ripped apart and eaten. Miriam had to hold its whole body from touching the floor in that place, otherwise the only things she had for ‘Food’ in there, would sink into the stone after a few seconds

She wasn't feeling like herself… and had no idea if it was the confined place, the fact that she didn’t had a full night of uninterrupted sleep since she got trapped, or something else… after seeing the body of a biped lizard sink into the stone for the first time, she knew that she couldn’t let herself be harmed… which made the endlessly glowing, and fully trapped, hallway, feel smaller than how it was

Miriam felt dread at the idea of the Dungeon getting hold of her blood, and didn’t needed the gods to agree with her in that aspect… even if she hadn't talked back as much in the time she was in that place. Not because she was angry that they couldn’t guide her out of the place, she was, but not at them, just at whatever had made that stupid rule, and at whatever reason that place was out of their control

The reason for her near constant silence was simple: she was worried

It was as if her Helper was gone, the silence was even worse than in the Uninterested stage. Adding to that was Brenna, Roxanne and those they saved, sure, the First Mother gave her updates, but none of them could tell her details… which in the end…

Miriam might not have been alone, but she felt alone…

Eventually, after killing hordes of enemies pouring from both sides of the hallway, she stopped. Angry at the place that kept her trapped there, she knew that the walls kept moving as soon as she turned a corner, keeping her away from the exit… she could see the magic in the walls, how those lines pulled and twisted when she no longer could see part of the hallway

The traps looked like accumulations of magic lines in either the floor or walls, making them easy to avoid… except for the one that made ten meters of wall try to squish her against another. The trap covered the whole floor and walls, and only triggered when she found it for the fifth time the same day, she was strong enough to held the wall in place, but moving past the damn thing was annoying

She also knew that she was moving somewhere, but it wasn't up or down

The Dungeon just kept her moving to keep her inside…

Too tired to move on for the ‘Day’ she fell down to sleep, wishing that she could just get out of the damned place…

Again…

A monster-like thing got close to her in her sleep, waking her up to get ripped apart and eaten…

/////

After a long time walking, the group finally saw the edge of the forest, stopping briefly once they crossed it, to soak in the scene of the vast plain, that moved slightly downhill to what looked like some farms, right outside of a walled city on the edge of the ocean at the distance. The rest of the group could see the bright spots of light made by the Terror Stones surrounding the area, but not Brenna or Roxanne, they just saw the pretty scene

And heard the relief that was obvious on the many sounds that came from the group, while the ladybugs buzzed and flew back inside the forest carrying their stones. The children, and some adults, waving at them as they went away

‘ ‘Finally…’ ’ Brenna and Roxanne couldn’t say that they were the most relieved from seeing the outside of the forest… but being the only ones to fight for so long, plus the need to be in constant alert, was extremely stressful for both, even if they didn’t fought that much during the weeks of travel

The only fight where Sapphire was summoned, was against a pack of frog-tonged, one-eyed, dog-like monsters, because only them had the numbers to be a threat to the people with them

Boars didn’t lasted more than a minute against Roxanne, and the rest of the creatures quickly met Brenna’s lightning, earth spikes, and a loud sonic based attack. She only did one of those, before the only humanoid, Tina, asked if those were going to become common

Tina wasn't harmed by it, but after seeing her dropped ears and puppy-like stare, the Singer didn’t wanted to take any risk of that happening…

Said girl was the one that was carrying Roxanne that day, while she was perched on Nai’s shoulder on the front of the group… and that was the reason she didn’t evolved the day before: she didn’t wanted to get too big in case and archer saw her and got scared before meeting her

The other children remained at a noticeable distance from her, not out of fear as Nai had found after asking them, but because she was always flying everywhere, and they didn’t wanted to get in the way of her spells

Still, they had complained for a while until a schedule to carry the bunny was made, and while Brenna wanted to complain about not being able to train Roxanne in magic… seeing them act like children while playing with her, was enough for Brenna to not said anything…

Roxanne helping them with their nightmares, was also a good incentive

So the group started to move closer, at a relaxed pace to not alert anyone that might have been looking in that direction from the walls, with the idea of them being chased by something… that thought made Brenna look back to the trees with worry

-They are saying that there is nothing close- but a subtle movement was translated for her

‘Good to know…’

‘Eh?’

In the time she explained what had happened to Roxanne, the group reached a dirt road to the city and soon enough crossed the Terror line, making someone gasp once they saw that Brenna and Roxanne…

Caw?

“Ah… nothing…” were completely unaffected by it “Forgot about the Terror stone that we carry…”

“I have it!” a boy behind him in the ‘Caravan’ showed the stone he was carrying with care

“No, I mean… nothing, good job” some of the adults snickered as they translated and conversed with the others

Brenna could hear the word, that she assumed was, for ‘Bird’ in Bori being repeated every now and then, while looking at the sky for a few minutes

‘Midday…’ Nai had been trying to teach her some of the language, but all of them ended the day so tired, that there wasn't much progress in that aspect ‘Any reason why the trees didn’t told us to make a final push?’

-Because appearing at night sounds like a bad idea. And they don’t extend lights up to the Terror Stones, so, your arrival would have been very sudden-

‘Eh…?’ her familiar asked again, while Tina was asked to walk near the front of the group next to Brenna and Nai as they got closer to the gate in the wall

‘They don’t have night-vision?’

-It depends of their ancestors-

‘What are you two talking about?!’ her squeaks made Brenna get stared

Ding

Clunk!

But the gate slowly opening ahead of them, distracted everyone in the group, from the shiver that both of them had with that notification

Five soldiers with light armor marched out of the city, spears pointing high reflecting the light of the sun as they walked forwards, their face-covering helmets had the visage of different feral creatures hiding their faces and had enough space inside them for their ears. Each of those helmets looked slightly different from the rest, not only in size but also in design

Their armor was mostly chain-mail, with some interconnected plates covering from chest to stomach, they also had an additional chain-mail ‘Cape’ attached to their waists that covered the back of their legs, that after a moment, she understood that it was for their tails, but didn’t dwell on that once she saw five more soldiers waiting right on the gate…

After a moment the closer soldiers stopped, right in front of a stone pattern on the road, right where the dirt road from the outside, turned into the cobblestone one of the city

She was about to use her spell to call out to them, but her Helper stopped her before she could start using her magic

-Don't use magic just yet, you’ll see why soon- she didn’t say anything, feeling a bit awkward at the tense atmosphere surrounding them…

Hearing the soldiers whisper among themselves, sounding really confused by both of the ‘Creatures’ that weren't affected by the Terror Stones, the middle soldier hadn't said anything so far

“No magic detected…” but hummed once someone in the walls whispered that

“Your representative and the cub can get closer now…” and the middle soldier finally called out of them, revealing with her voice that she was a middle aged woman, but Brenna couldn’t distinguish anything in her armor that signaled her as having a higher rank than the others

Nai sighed and translated what she said to Tina, who was tilting her head in confusion at the people whispering a different language, before both held hands and walked towards the symbol on the ground, both stopping before touching any of the stone tiles that formed the circles surrounded by more circles…

…

Silence stretched for a few seconds, before Nai looked at Brenna a bit worried…

Caw?

“You don’t…? Oh…” the blonde blinked, somewhat amused by the realization “Step in the middle of the design”

Brenna tilted her head in confusion, specially by the confused sounds coming from the tall wall, but did as she instructed and landed on the ground before hopping to the middle of-

MMMMMMM

Freezing once a triangular stone on top of the gate hummed loudly

BRENNA, GRAND WITCH OF THE FOREST NESTING THE FOUR RULERS OF DEATH

Caw?!

Becoming as surprised as everyone from the city, at least those that were nearby, by the stone speaking, except, that the locals were surprised by what the stone was saying…

IMPORTANT TITLES

‘Oh no!’ those were…

SINGING WINGS OF FREEDOM

BANE OF SLAVERY

New, due to finally completing the Deeds Savior of Women and Men…

SUMMONER

Very new… to the point where she had no idea from where it came from…

FUTURE WIFE OF THE FOURTH RULER OF DEATH

CAW?!!!

‘DEEEEEE!!!!!!’ and what she only could feel, was a prank…

Many strangled whimpers came from the wall and the five soldiers visible trembled-

HAHAHAHA!!! YOU SHOULD SEE YOUR FACES!!!

CAW?!!! CAW!!! CAW!!!

Followed by many groans coming from all over the place…

BRENNA, IF YOU THOUGHT THAT I WAS GOING TO MISS THAT CHANCE

THEN YOU DON'T KNOW ME WELL ENOUGH~ THAT WILL CHANGE~

CAW!!!

ALL RIGHT, PRANK OVER~ THE LAST ONE WAS A JOKE… FOR NOW~♥

CAW!!!

Once the stone went silent Brenna still cawed at it for a while before she started to breath heavily from the exertion…

“Send s-someone to the temples…” almost missing a trembling voice inside the wall to the right of the gate

“S-summoner…?” one of the nearby soldiers whispered, causing a silence…

“Is there a problem with me being one?” that confused Brenna…

But not as much as the surprised sounds of the soldiers in front of her after she did her spell…

“Enough…!” the woman spoke, with enough authority in her voice, to make order around them by saying just that “Who are all of you?”

After a few seconds of silence

“We are-” Nai started to speak, but interrupted herself once Brenna turned to look at her with her spell in her beak “Again…?! Sorry” the weakness of her spell had happened a few times already, and it always made the poor woman cringe when she caused it to happen

“There was a group of slavers inside the forest. Miriam, a priestess of Aufiea, Roxanne, the bunny that soon will become humanoid, and I, were asked to free the people in there. Miriam will meet us here soon, she has to deal with something else first”

Convincing everyone to keep the secret of Miriam being a Ruler, was very easy. All of them still remembered the information about her enemies to the north, so, waiting for her to arrive at the city before the entrance revealed that about her, was no problem…

“And I told you that it’s a problem with my spell, not your fault” even if only Brenna and Roxanne didn’t knew about stones that could scream Titles…

Once she finished, and after a few more questions, one by one were granted access to the city without the stone revealing any other shocking secret, much to everyone’s relief…

But for some reason, that annoyed Brenna… the stone just said Roxanne’s name, and called her a cute bunny…

/////

Again…

A monster-like thing got close to her in her sleep, waking her up to get ripped apart and eaten. Miriam had to hold its whole body from touching the floor in that place, otherwise the only things she had for ‘Food’ in there, would sink into the stone after a few seconds

She wasn't feeling like herself…

‘Let me out…’ and had no idea if it was the confined place, the fact that she didn’t had a full night of uninterrupted sleep since she got trapped…

Or…

‘Why does this place exist…?’ Miriam asked, again, feeling the monotony eroding her mind from every direction…

“The universe is made from the beautiful, positive feelings, coming from the souls~ so! What do you do with those bad and evil feelings? Why~ you bottle them of course~ and then you bury them underground, letting them slowly drip out, turning into small, small, monsters~ that are killed by heroes and adventurers~ making more positive feeling all around. So, the universe grows~”

‘Is that actually true?’

“Nope~♥”

Miriam shook her head once the Trickster started to laugh

“We cannot reveal why a Dungeon is made… there are rules all the gods are bound to…” Mordauntless said

“Speak for yourself~” but the Trickster laughed again…

‘I see… but…’ and made Miriam think about that topic ‘It feels like the truth, when compared to some of the things, someone has been saying to me so far…’

“Aww~ you were paying attention~♥ maybe I should do like Lulu and-?!!!”

The Trickster was dragged away, by the neck, according to the sound made… but Miriam couldn’t focus on that

Another wave of monster-like things were getting closer…

Again…

/////

The meeting in the largest temple, with many shrines dedicated to individuals near it, was a… slightly frustrating one…

Instead of meeting with a priestess of Aufiea, a prankster of De rushed to met them, because not only De was considered one of the quietest deities… somehow…

Summoning was also a big deal… to the point where the prankster was thinking she was going to become one too. It took five long hours of talking, for a priestess and Brenna to finally convince the prankster to let the Singer rest and wait for a few days to talk about that topic, everyone else, including Roxanne, had already gotten a place to sleep by then, leaving her to get the last possible place in the city at the time

A room in the second floor of what used to be a warehouse near the middle of the city, it was going to be repurposed soon, but once Brenna mentioned Miriam’s size the place was looking near perfect for what they might need… specially considering that Roxanne was going to be with the children for the foreseeable future

“What do you mean by that…?” but a few days later… “It’s under the whole peninsula!” she found herself having problems with the girl coming to the city

“Sure… it might be…” a cat eared guy rolled his eyes while leaning back on his chair “But the damned thing keeps moving the entrances all over the place. Entering that place needs it to freaking stay still!”

Brenna was perched on the back of a chair in the meeting room, with four Heirs of the Wild around the table, looking at her with both curiosity and sympathy. Humanoid worked, but Heirs was the preferred term

Two girls and two guys, one of each were fox’s descendants, not siblings according to the color of the furred ears, a dog’s descendant, and the cat guy…

‘Ugh…’ they were currently the best group of adventurers that the city had to deal with the forest’s creatures… ‘Damn it all…’ only the creatures…

Caw…

“We understand that the situation is frustrating…” the fox guy said, giving his companion a stare before looking at her again “But the Dungeon is a dangerous place, it likes to shift it’s internal structure on a whim, the traps it has can be deathly to whole groups at once, it calls hordes upon hordes of monsters on the people that enters it…”

He worked his jaw for a moment, his fluffy ears twitching a bit with some frustration showing in his expression

“There is also the need to have a devout to any god, constantly making a tether from the outside, to minimize the risk of that entrance closing, but even that…” pain flashed in his eyes “The Dungeon knows how to counter that…” the way the two girls looked at each other, gave Brenna the idea that there was a story there…

“Then I’ll go get her out by myself” but she just made her next message while looking at the fox-girl “I can’t pay with money, but I can offer everything I know about magic, in exchange for your group helping me become a humanoid…”

The girl inhaled with shock visible in her eyes, the way the bones in her staff kept glowing every time she started to make a message made her become tense, but the way her upright, red-furred ears were aiming at her, gave the sensation that she was about to agree immediately…

“Don't…!” but the cat guy pointed at her face to pull her attention away from Brenna, which she answered with a growl…

Grand Witch was the Title she got as she fought on the way to the city, it was supposed to eventually become something called a Class, but she didn’t cared about that at the moment. Her magic was the only thing she had to barter with, which was why she had been asking around until she found that group

“Don't fight, you two…” and the apparent leader’s ears dropped in annoyance, before looking at her “The Guild… has guidelines about what to do in case meeting a newly evolved Matriarch…” he gestured at her “But none of those talk about your current situation-”

“Yes, it does” the cat interrupted “Don't… go making new Arches”

The two girls and Brenna glared at him, but the leader continued after taking a deep breath, with his tail making some noise against the wooden floor of the room while dragging the chain-mail of his outfit

“Which is why… we need to discuss this with the Guild” he didn’t looked at the guy “Being able to cross Terror Stones… should be enough for them to allow us to help with your request” the cat guy looked away “In the mean time, you might want to talk with the temples in order to inform them about needing a devout’ help in the future?”

“If they are the hardest part of getting Miriam out of there, I’m going to scream…” her voice in the message was filled with rage, but she couldn’t care at the time of making the spell. Only when she heard her own tone, and saw the girls smiling patiently at her, is that she took a deep breath and made another one “Thank you all for your time, goodbye”

Another small use of her magic opened the door of the wooden room, and she flew out after they said their goodbyes too

“How did it went?” to land on Nai’s shoulder, which she could still ride, due to not growing after her last evolution

“I don’t want to talk about it… can we go to the temples?” the woman was helping her move around, due to not wanting to scare too many people from seeing a bird inside the city

“Sure!” she said before walking out of the building and continued with the conversation they had started that morning, about how everyone was adapting to being free…

Most of them still had nightmares…

-Don't worry, the temples will help them with those-

‘I hope so…’

/////

A…

‘Letmeoutletmeoutletmeoutletmeoutletmeoutletmeoutletmeoutletmeoutletme-’

Crunch!!!

gain…

‘Nomorenomorenomoremoreno-’

Miriam roared with pure wrath burning in her mind, she had just taken a corner at a T junction and found herself staring at a dead end. In her rage she closed her mouth for a moment, before releasing a stream of flames towards the wall, it did nothing, but she was already used to not being able to damage the cursed walls

But once she turned and saw the corner of the wall, she noticed the only thing she hadn't tried yet. She bit the wall-

“Miriam! No-!”

‘ABSORB!!!’

The warning came a little too late

In the instant that her eyes and core became black, the damage was done, with just that instant her mouth filled with the most disgusting taste she had ever felt. Making her recoil, with her eyes and core returning to normal as she winced in pain

She wouldn't notice the small crack she made on the wall before it fixed itself. The many monstrous roars that came in front of her, managed to pull her attention

“Let me out!!!” but not her interest

Because once the wave of monster-like things rushing towards her became obvious, she met them with fire. Devastating anything that tried to get close to her from that direction, and when more things tried to attack her from her left, the direction she had came from, she made a cutting motion with that hand

Bisecting everything that rushed at her with a [Sword Wave], weaker than normal, but that rabble only had numbers going for them…

Then she noticed the glow in the walls intensifying, with some vibrations around her stopping her breath attack, she looked at the dead end just as it was opening. Her breath changed as she saw the more muscular things running towards her, but the mist quickly froze into an ice spike that she fired at them-

BOOM!!!

The projectile turned them into mincemeat, so she quickly forgot about them and went back to look at the other passages around her

‘DIELETMEOUTDIELETMEOUTDIELETMEOUTDIELETMEOUTDIELETMEOUTDIELETMEOUTDIELETMEOUTDIELETMEOUT’

What was she doing? Did she had killed anything? Where were the corpses if so? Where was the exit? Why it was getting harder to breath?

Miriam kept killing, and killing, and killing. The why was losing its meaning in her tired mind, she barely managed to think about reaching the deepest part of the place, get to the supposed core of the place, swallow it and let Absorb destroy-

Ding

After what it seemed hours of a non-stopping massacre, that sound resonated inside her mind

Vibrating her body with an intensity that made the walls of the Dungeon tremble… with fear… stopping all the things that were inside the place, with no idea of what was happening anymore

‘What…?’

“Miriam…” his voice was pained… and hopeless… “You reached the Cap… I’m sorry…”

“Status…”

She… could feel tears forming in her eyes… the screen in front of her opened directly to the evolutions available, which only had Calamities that had missing requirements…

Except for one…

Nidhogg

It was something that made her become painfully aware of her hunger… knowing that it was going to get worse, while hearing that Grudge filled voice whispering in the back of her mind…

A dark radiance started to fill the gaps between her scales, filling her scars… deepening the shadows cast by her feathers… everything was losing its colors, just as she was almost losing her hope at only seeing one path in front of her…

“No…”

Almost

“I refuse…!”

She roared again making the whole Dungeon tremble once more, filling her whole body with magic

“Devour this useless future!” the dark mixing with a glow that refused to die “Devour every dead end!” she didn’t noticed the small cracks on the ground as her magic escaped and filled the air around her- “Devour my life! My potential! My everything if needed!!!” before all of it condensed back in her “I will Devour a new path!!! And nothing can stop me!!! ABSORB!!!”

Miriam stilled

And the dark spilled out of her body, swallowing her whole, together with with the walls, the floor and the ceiling. Once more making the Dungeon try to retaliate against her, sending its hordes against the dark, while trying to grow its everything to keep her inside the dungeon, keeping her from devouring any of the ground of the outside, foolishly trying to keep the all consuming end that was the sphere that had appeared out of nowhere, inside of its walls

Only when the sphere stopped growing, and thousands of things were lost forever inside the dark, is that the Dungeon stopped

Observing with the eyes of one of its monsters…

Seeing the floating sphere, rotating inside the huge chamber that had to be made to keep it inside… and noticing how the surface looked like the scales of a gigantic, coiled, being

/////

A chuckle escaped from the Guardian, while they pointed at Miriam’s location…

“How stubborn…” waiting, just to see if the girl was going to survive her latest action

None of those in the domain had any idea of what was going to happen next