RD 3 Ch 46 (Patreon)

Chapter 46

"If you're not precise, you can make the destruction worse," Da Vinci argued. 

Circe flicked her hand, and a breeze of wind slammed him into the cyclone walls that she had kept around the clearing. "Shut up and let Bran work. As for the rest of you, don’t think about escaping. We fix this or we all die." 

I took the vote of confidence in stride and kept working as quickly as I could move. 

The suction of the black hole was picking up as I worked spurring me on.

Fighting had stopped, especially as people began to inspect one another, looking for the change of names.

I was sure there was still a demon among us, one who had a better ability to hide. And I must have been right. 

While I worked, Merlin broke her neutrality. A spike of ice took another of the adventurers. 

"Merlin," Vincent snapped. “What the hell are you doing?!”

"He was a demon." She crossed her arms. "At this point, are you going to deny the overwhelming evidence? I can tell you've eaten plenty of fruits, Vincent. Why don't you check your spirit?" she said, her eyes narrowing sharply. 

Several others followed the conversation and their focus shifted as they looked like they were glancing in the distance. I knew they were checking their stats. Gasps were heard all around. 

"I assume spirit stat is what you need to resist possession," Merlin asked, glancing over at me. 

I nodded distractedly, continuing to work on my formation. "Yep. The Spirit and the soul are interconnected. Possession works against your spirit at a base level, but like everything, how you use it is most important." 

"But inside the vault," Antonio spat, still staring at his stats.

"The vault was  entirely controlled by demons. Whatever they were doing, they were hiding it. Even from the system," Simone explained. "But don't worry, if you have any fruits left, Bran can help." Simone added, batting her eyelashes at me.

Simone had unwavering faith in me, and I was going to do my damndest to earn that adoration. First, I needed to stop the vault from turning into a black hole.

I finished my rough formation, drawing the last line and bleeding it into the groove. As I finished, the eight talisman papers began to glow, the corners smoking slightly as my blood dried quickly into black lines. The energy surrounding the vault was intense; I wasn't entirely sure my materials could handle that level of power. I waited to find out.

The black hole swirled, continuing to draw material, and for a moment I thought it would overpower my work.

But as I watched, the spinning began to slow ever so slightly, then more as it stopped its draw of objects into it.

"It's working," someone shouted, only for one of my talisman papers to completely burn up.

Yet, the pull didn't resume, even as my formation faltered. Instead, I felt an immense pressure, as if the world itself was squeezing this space. 

Suddenly, the area around us popped. Rather than the black hole sucking inwards, a bubble formed, expanding around us, consuming the space, and trapping us all inside as it expanded into the horizon, swallowing the whole forest we were in. 

Circe blinked and turned to me. "Is that what I think it is?" 

A garrote popped into existence only for half a dozen people to attack it at once. People must hate those nearly as much as me by now. Off in the distance, I heard a tremendous roar that shook the ground, and a gout of fire shot into the sky. 

"That's exactly what you think it is, Circe. We're now in an instance." I answered.

"An instance?" Da Vinci asked.

"Of course. What do you think instances are?" I turned to the old coot.

Da Vinci frowned. "I'm not entirely sure.” He admitted, although I could tell he hated saying those words.

“Think of them as dimensional wounds. And the world, or the system, however you prefer to describe it, is then sending us in as the immune system to clear out the infection that it spawns in the form of monsters. Think of the monsters as a way for it to solidify the energy from the dimensional wound into something that can be dealt with." I told him.

Not only Da Vinci, but many of the Free Payer Alliance frowned at my answer, thinking over their role in all of this.

"Then it would make sense that a spatial anomaly would turn into an instance," Merlin said. 

I sighed, knowing they were probably using this information to think about ways to create their own instance, but I shook my head. 

"This is unique. The vault, the demons inside, aren't something we can recreate. I doubt even with my ability I could make one of those. If I had the vault for decades and was able to disassemble it safely, maybe I could. But now that it's gone, I don't anticipate ever making one myself. After all, it goes against the system," I said. Knowing what I did now about the System, I wouldn’t do something like harming it to make a farming grounds.

Circe waved her hand, and the wall of wind around us disappeared. 

"Well, if we are now in an instance, then that's simple enough. We'll just have to clear it." Circe answered.

Several initiates who had been inside the vault had queasy looks on their faces.

“Circe Heros”. Antonio bowed deeply to her. "That fire, that roar… I recognize it. I think it was a monster we had seen in the Trials. It was terrifyingly powerful. If that's here..." Antonio hesitated, glancing to the side at me. "I hope there's a way to defeat it." 

I grunted. "There's always a way to defeat a monster, it's just a question of how much you're willing to sacrifice. If the system made this space as I would guess, that thing is bound to be the boss."

Vinvent hardened his gaze as he worked to inspect me once again.

I brushed it aside as I had many others.

Vincent only glared harder. "Since I can't inspect you, and you've already proven I cannot trust you by involving one of the five clans," he pointed at Circe, "and bringing your own small army," he gestured at Mul Branova, “It's in my best interest to move with people I can trust to clear out this instance as quickly as possible."

I glanced at Circe and at my people. "But I would suggest that you be careful and prepare for a multitude of tricks, since the demons I was most concerned about didn't appear here with us. I can only assume they're elsewhere in the instance."

"You're referring to Mr. Volker?" Da Vinci asked.

"And more," I answered quickly. "The General of the Demons is still out there. Technically, I haven't killed him. At least, I haven't gotten any experience for the kill." I grumbled the last under my breath.

He had been incredibly high level, and I should have boosted considerably when I finished devouring his soul. It seemed, either from the demon’s subversion of the system or in the system's eyes, I hadn't killed him since there were fragments of his soul that escaped.

Everybody around me nodded along. "Still, I'm not much of a team player," Da Vinci said, stepping aside on his own. "I'll take a small group with me and I will work to clear out this direction as much as I can." He waved off into the distance and began walking.

Vincent wasn't quite the lone wolf and snapped his fingers. A small troop quickly came to his side, ready to march through the instance together.

There were some odds and ends left together, but none of them seemed to want to join me and instead gathered themselves into small groups. Meanwhile, the Mul Branova, as well as my ladies, gathered around me, though they still stayed a few steps away because Circe and Merlin were next to me and both were giving off dangerous energy as they resumed glaring at each other.

No one wanted to get near them.

I cleared my throat and stepped up between the two women. "Is there going to be a problem?" I asked.

"No problem," Circe smiled at me. But that smile was a little too sweet to be believable.

"Good. If there's no problem, I think we should get moving." I gestured for the two of them to follow me.

Yet they froze once again.

"There might be a problem," Merlin said after a moment.

"Oh, please enlighten me." I did my best to keep from laughing, though a slight chuckle escaped with my words.

"Why would there be a problem?" Circe said, keeping her smile sickly sweet as she grinned back at Merlin. The wizard rolled her eyes at the nymph.

"We both know why there's a problem. You don't like me." Merlin answered.

Circe gasped and put a hand against her chest. "Oh, no! Whatever will we do? It’s an utter disaster that I don’t like you." she said mockingly.

Gloria slid up beside me and very softly made a noise of two cats fighting.

I tucked my lips in, holding back a laugh as both Circe and Merlin turned my direction.

"What's so funny?" Both of them suddenly directed their anger at me for a moment, before glancing at each other and realizing there was some level of camaraderie between them.

Apparently, they could unite if it was against me.

"I'll have you know Bran is a member of the Heros Clan and even serves the branch for the Odyssey. My branch," Circe laid some claim on me.

Merlin cleared her throat. "That's very interesting. He hasn't mentioned you or the Heros Clan at all while we worked together in the vault. I don't think he appreciates the Heros Clan as much as you think." Merlin kept her expression frosty.

"He was most likely playing a wolf in sheep's clothing in the vault. He certainly feels familial ties to the Hero's Clan, doesn't he?" Circe pointedly stared at me as if I was supposed to pick a side between the two of them.

I turned to find Gloria, who had just brought their attention back on me, only to notice she was feigning complete innocence while seeking shelter with Simone.

The Saintess could only give me a guilty shrug while fighting to keep from smiling.

I turned back to Merlin and Circe. "Well, either both of you can come with us, or you can go off on your own. I'm sure between the two of you, all we'll have to do is put the monsters between you while you settle whatever argument you have."

"There is no argument," Circe said again.

"Just a few old grudges." Merlin muttered.

I gestured at the two of them. "Let’s not mince words. You two have a problem with each other. That much is clear. I'll let you figure it out while we go kill some monsters." 

I was curious what rank this instance was as I stepped away.

The Mul Branova fell in behind me, leaving the two ancient women to finish their stare-off without me involved.

The last thing I wanted to do was get between those two, especially if they actually came to blows. While I might be able to soften the fallout, the reality was they needed to work out their issues. So rather than stand between them, I'd let them sort it out. 

Simone slid up beside me. "Circe seems a little upset."

"She has a right to be," I said, my mind suddenly going back to what she said when I came out of the vault. "After all, apparently we were in there for over a year. There's only two weeks left until the Rapture. Which means, there’s one thing I have to agree with Vincent on. We need to finish this instance as quickly as possible."

Gloria was next to me as I said that, and her eyes practically bugged out. "Over a year?" She blurted the words out loud enough for all of the Mul Branova to hear it.

"We were there that long?" One said while the others began to murmur.

There was a slight edge of panic bubbling up amongst the Mul Brannova.

I patted the air for not only Gloria, but everyone to settle down. "We will get everything sorted once we get out of here. There's nothing we can do until then. Please don't get distracted." I glared at Gloria. "As for plans, we can discuss those later. I think many of my own will have to get thrown by the wayside."

That was the understatement of the year.

I clicked my tongue in annoyance. I had been hoping to power myself up far further, but it seemed I wasn't going to continue to take advantage of the time before the First Demon War.

Luckily, I was strong enough to do what I wanted at the start of the war, and perhaps I would have to let some of it take its natural course while I sought to solidify my lead in strength.

Even if the war started immediately, it would still be some time before the Demon Lord showed himself. And in the first timeline, humanity successfully survived the First Demon War.

We would likely do it again. The Five Clans would be able to hold off the demonic armies from killing everyone, and given I had reduced the number of demon generals and taken over one of their gates, this round should at least be easier.