Demon's Virtue

694  White Flames n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Krog had squatted down on the ground, blood having soaked into his facial hair. With an annoyed groan, he placed his thumb onto one of his nostrils and exhailed strongly. A glob of coagulated blood flew out onto the ground, and inside of it, something seemed to be wriggling. Krog quickly stepped on it, crushing it under his boot.

"Annoying bastards," he cursed, spitting on the ground a few times. He grabbed a small metal flask that was attached to his belt, quickly filling his mouth with the liquid inside of it and swishing it around his mouth a few times, before spitting the liquid back out. Together with the clear, high percentage alcohol that he carried with him to disinfect his injuries in case of an emergency, a number of leftover bug carcasses flew out of his mouth. The warrior turned around, looking at the completely destroyed nests that covered the walls of the narrow hallway he had found himself in. He was barely able to walk through there without pushing into those nests and disturbing literally everything inside of them, so this wasn't a particularly fun time for him. But now that this was over, he could at least concentrate on finding the others again. Though, to be perfectly honest, he knew that he was mostly relying on one of the others, most likely Eiro, finding and killing the one controlling this dungeon. Otherwise, there was basically no way for Krog to find his way through here, especially if he could be teleported elsewhere at any point in time.

For now, Krog continued on. It didn't seem like this hallway was stretching for particularly long. He was currently approaching a stairway with light shining down from wherever it was leading. Since it had been dark in here, he tried to slowly accustom himself to the light before rushing to the space above, so that he couldn't be ambushed while half-blinded. But even after slowly making his way up the stairs, there wasn't anything there. Except, of course, the environment he found himself in was more than suspicious.

Up until now, ever since the party had entered the tower, the environment had been practically the same. Stone bricks wherever they looked, sometimes wooden doors, random furniture, long, winding hallways, and every once in a while the rare room that were actually connected by those hallways. But now, Krog was basically outside.

There were trees, flowers, and all sorts of other plants no matter where he looked. As though he stepped into some kind of jungle. Light was shining through the leaves above him, but when he managed to catch some glances at what was above the trees, he could still see some dark gray like the bricks he was used to. Suspicious, Krog leaned down, pushing his hand into the dirt, shoveling it away as much as he could. Before long, he reached the bottom; more stone bricks. And when he pushed some of the giant leaves to the side, and cut away some of the ones that were growing a bit too densely, he managed to see some overgrown, cracked planters.

He wasn't suddenly outside; they had just turned this space into an inside-garden. Though, even if that was the case, this still gave Krog a certain possibility. He noticed some snickering sounds around him. More bugs or some sort of small critters. Without a moment's hesitation, Krog turned around and stepped back into the hallway. He thought about it for a moment, and then figured that there was no need for him to make this harder on himself for no reason. With how dense this place was, this shouldn't take too long.

23:46

He wasn't suddenly outside; they had just turned this space into an inside-garden. Though, even if that was the case, this still gave Krog a certain possibility. He noticed some snickering sounds around him. More bugs or some sort of small critters. Without a moment's hesitation, Krog turned around and stepped back into the hallway. He thought about it for a moment, and then figured that there was no need for him to make this harder on himself for no reason. With how dense this place was, this shouldn't take too long.

Krog once more grabbed the flask from his belt and poured it over some of the plants near the wall, before grabbing one of his axes tightly, "Sorry, bud..." With that, Krog quickly hit the wall at an angle. His father was a miner, so he was decently familiar with stone, and knew that the particular kind that was used for the stone bricks would produce nice sparks. And just as he thought, sparks appeared and the alcohol caught fire. With that, Krog just had to bring out one more thing. He pushed his hand inbetween the large number of different weapons strapped to his back, ready to be drawn at any moment, and pulled out a small pouch. From there, he pulled a scroll. Jess, after Eiro had made her take a Scribe class, had started procuring a lot of scrolls with different effects. This one in particular was specifically made to make flames burn hotter. Much, much hotter. Following the instructions he was given, Krog simply threw the scroll into the small fire. The dark flames from the alcohol quickly sparked up as they fed on the scroll's paper, turning a hot, bright white while shooting up in size. They immediately began to spread around onto the surrounding plants, as Krog returned back into the hallway that he had come from. Since it was down the steps, he felt like he didn't really have to worry too much.

Even if some smoke would end up being pushed down, Krog had spent a few years as a miner before himself and the class abilities he got from that were more than useful to him here. He could survive for a long time while low on air. And at this point, with his current stats and the specific training that Eiro had him do to increase his lung capacity, he could hold his breath for a good two hours if he needed to, without even breaking a sweat. And with the fire as hot as that scroll would get it, those two hours definitely wouldn't even be needed. This would barely take twenty minutes if the room was roughly as large as Krog figured. But even so, for now, he just had to wait it out.

--- Ariella sat on the steps of the altar, looking at the mountain of fake angels' corpses in front of her. For a while, she was shooting them down from down here, but at some point, she had to fly up to become more mobile because of just how many of these there were. She managed to take them all out at some point, so she had just started looking for the exit, but all she found was the 'nests' of these guys. They had really just built nests out of hay and branches in the dozens of layers of wooden cross beams that she found in the darkness of the church's ceiling. There was no exit here, or at least, none that Ariella was able to see. However, she knew one thing for sure; there had to be a way for her to get out of here.

According to Eiro, the space that could be created had some restrictions. For one, it would always resemble the space that had been turned. While some changes could be made and some 'mutations' or slightly new spaces could be invented by the artifact's user, it all had to be based off the space that was affected by the map. That meant that the inside of the tower generally looked similar to the areas that the party had been through until now. And most likely, there was some kind of chapel in there, that had then been expanded and mutated into this specific space.

And then, the second, and more currently vital, change was that everything had to be connected somehow. There couldn't be random, removed spaces. While there could be doors and such, and even locked rooms, doors could always be broken down and locks could be picked. Just a small tunnel large enough for a bug didn't count either; an average person had to be able to get through without issues. Though, that last restriction most likely also changed depending on the user and the space that was changed. If a tiny ant monster used it to change an anthill, then that would probably scale down a lot. But here, it meant that a way outside had to exist in some capacity. As she contemplated on the monsters around her, trying to think about why the Devil was as sick of a creature as he was, she was also making the wisps of holy light float around the room, trying to catch any sort of airflow that could hint at something. And it didn't take long for her to find something either. The dust-sized wisps of light were moving weird around the base of one of the paintings placed on the wall. And of course, in the Devil's sick sense of fun, it was the painting where Ariella's father, slowly being corrupted by the darkness of having fallen, was holding onto her as an infant.

"I swear to everything that makes my heart beat, that I will kill you," Ariella said to herself. This whole thing was clearly meant to shake her, but all it did was strengthen her resolve. She grabbed the shortsword at her hip and quickly slashed through the painting's canvas, stepping through it into the tunnel beyond it. She didn't know where it led, but she couldn't just sit around and wait for Eiro to solve everything for her.

Ever since the two of them met, Eiro had become a new source of her strength. He had helped her heal more and more from the emotional wounds she and those around her had been inflicted by, and she was infinitely grateful. She truly loved Eiro with her whole being, but she knew that she couldn't rely on him for everything. Especially not for something like this. She had to pull her own weight.