Alcor

I winced, continuing to cover my eyes. The force had vanished, though the light continued to shine and the wind continued blasting away from that central point of light. I glanced over and managed to see that Val and Auriel had their eyes open. They were staring at the source of the light, though Auriel glanced at me, seeming confused. The way her hair blasted back, flowing in rippling waves behind her, almost like fire in the light, made me blush and struggle to keep my thoughts focused. 

She crawled closer, and my blush deepened as she made it mere inches away from where I was kneeling, then pulled my hands into her own. The light dimmed- or seemed too- as I stared at her, and my eyes slowly stopped hurting as I stared into Auriel's gorgeous green eyes. Then she raised an eyebrow and I blushed harder, quickly looking away to try and recover. 

When I turned to see what had been making the light. I noticed that Val had ignored Stephan, instead standing and trying to get closer to the light despite the wind. Steph seemed to still be blinded. I looked over at what had caused the light, finally focusing on it, and saw something confusing. An orb of yellow crystal about as big as a boulder spun in the air directly above Yorik, and seemed to be slowly moving faster. 

Val seemed terrified, and was desperately chanting, her words so full of powerful magic that I could hear them echoing off the walls despite the wind, even though I couldn't understand what she was saying or trying to do. She was leaning into the wind, her eyes shut tightly as she moved closer, her hands not blocking her face and moving in a specific pattern instead, helping to channel the magic. 

I hadn't seen Val need to use gestures or use such a long chant in years... When she'd first joined and started working magic, her spells had required it to help her maintain her focus as she shaped the magic, but now she was a high enough level that she shouldn't need such high amounts of focus... unless it some kind of extremely powerful spell she'd never even told us about before. 

Her eyes started glowing a deep red, her pupils visible through her eyelids as visible, condensed red mana started leaking from her tearducts as she drew magic from her surroundings to help aid her in casting the spell... Meaning it took more magic than her body could contain. I finally stood, helping Auriel to her feet and helping her reach Val. She heard Val speak and understood, immediately downing a blue potion before closing her own eyes and joining Val in casting the spell as I went back to help Steph. 

I stood in between him and the orb, letting Steph recover as he used me to keep from being blown away in the wind. He was tiny compared to me, especially in the weight department- he'd always had such little muscle and mass compared to myself... He climbed up my back to my ear so he could speak over the wind. 

"What in the name of Mother Vor is that!?" He was referring to the goddess of the wraiths, who was worshiped occasionally by thieves and rogues. Ironic, really... it made me wonder what god or goddess Val worshiped. I shrugged, noting that he still seemed blinded. He felt my reaction and used some impressive sounding words that sounded distinctly human. I didn't understand the swearing, but I understood the sentiment. I started moving towards the orb, and Steph held on, blinded by it. 

Val and Auriel seemed to be trying to stop whatever the orb was from doing what it was meant to do, and their spell was starting to take effect. I could see visible amounts of mana gathering and starting to bind the orb, slowing it down noticeably. It kept turning though, and seemed to be growing bright and hotter as it did so, heat I hadn't noticed before beginning to slowly blister my skin as it grew brighter. 

I managed to make it in front of the girls, putting my arms out to the side and blocking them from the wind, the light, and even the burning heat that began to give me minor burns. I ignored it, protecting my friends. They sounded like they'd almost finished chanting when the orb cracked, locking in place as it looked almost like it would explode. The girls finished their spell right as the orb exploded fully, the crystal shattering and freezing in place as the spell took hold, though it was too late for whatever they'd been hoping to do. 

They collapsed, Val passing out and landing on Steph- though Auriel only fell to her hands and knees, seeming exhausted and pale. She used the souls of the dead to cast her spells, she must've summoned so many to do this... But it hadn't worked, which I knew from the defeated look in her eyes. I looked back at the orb, wincing as I moved and my burned skin rubbed against itself. I would be sleeping on my back for the next while... probably without a shirt. Healing potions were too valuable to waste on minor burns like this. 

In the orb, a brilliantly glowing woman was curled up. As the explosion strained against the bonds placed on her, the shards slowly spread away from her, and she slowly- painfully slowly- straightened, spreading her feathered wings. She was more than a simple light-aligned celestial, but I didn't know what. Angel was the closest term I thought I could use, though Valkyrie also seemed to fit fairly well. 

The woman had long, flowing blonde hair that spread down halfway down her thighs, shining blue eyes, and radiant, lightly tanned skin that was almost human, but not quite. She had a shorter frame, maybe five and a half feet or less, and was shockingly well built- she had more muscle than I would've expected, but was very curvy, and seemed like she had a healthy amount of squish. Her most shocking assets were the main things I... oddly, wasn't interested in. She had nothing on Auriel in my opinion, no matter how large she was. 

She was naked and... and... I looked at the orb under her, confused. It sounded like Yorik was screaming in some sort of... agony? Humiliation? Existential terror? But... that didn't take any sense, seeing as... I froze, realizing exactly what was wrong. He was directly under her... I sympathized. I'd have no idea how to react to that kind of experience either. 

Suddenly the screams cut out and he started mentally yelling some kind of gibberish in a language I didn't understand. Light flared on her body, a swirling green that seemed to be interwoven with gold and red sparks of arcing energy. The woman opened her eyes, which seemed to shimmer and then glow, as if a soul was settling into an empty vessel. Then she stared at us. She seemed annoyed until she realized what Yorick was doing. Then she screamed.

At first, it was meaningless gibberish as her mouth didn't seem to work properly. Then it sounded like a foreign language that I couldn't understand. When the light vanished, Yorick stopped chanting- or maybe he stopped chanting, and then the light vanished- leaving the woman standing in a much more modest looking outfit made mostly of vines, moss, and leaves woven together, with flowers appearing occasionally across it. 

It covered her shoulders, barely, and easily hid most of her cleavage, leaving the only exposed skin on her neck and head, hands, and one leg from about mid-calf down. She shouted at him in anger, furiously casting a spell with a gesture, which caused the dress to become a white, silk creation with golden threads inlaid where the flowers had been. She was showing off more cleavage than I was comfortable with, but at least it was better than it had been before the magical clothing change. 

She finally turned on us, huffing. "You have received your rewards, and you have done more to my dungeon than I would've liked, so leave now before I simply kill you all." She raised a hand and a shield of green light flickered into being around us, somehow not impairing my sight. Yorick was shouting again... 

"It's my dungeon Angel! And I granted them safety in my home as the reward to their quest! They have earned a bit of safety and rest, so get off of their backs, stop bothering them, and explain why you-" He kept rambling in annoyed anger. She attacked the magic, and the shield cracked, which let her own spell begin to get through, only for tendrils of the shield around us to latch onto her magic and start pulling it apart thread by thread, using the golden light to restore itself. 

She stopped the spell, glaring at him in annoyance. I could feel the frustration and fury arcing between them. She started shouting again, and Yorick returned the gesture until she picked him up, and a crack echoed through the hall as Yorick took intense damage just from her grip. He screamed in my head, and I had fired an arrow before I realized it. The arrow pierced her bicep, making her drop him in shock- not in pain, though. Yorik dropped, and Auriel managed to use some air magic to pull him into the shield with us, letting me catch him. 

The Angel woman looked royally pissed, ripping the arrow out of her arm and forcibly healing herself through some complex spell that made Val gasp in shock and fear. I agreed with the sentiment. There was a reason only clerics an other holy warriors could use healing magic. Living things were so complex, no spell existed that was powerful or complex enough, nor a mage whom was knowledgeable enough, that any such spell would reliably work. It required a gods input. No one in the entire world other than the gods could beat her if she was able to cast healing magic as a spell instead of a prayer... and so easily as well. 

Finally she spoke in a way we could understand. "He has made his case known, and you are allowed to stay. As long as you return him to me and acknowledge my godhood, you may yet survive this encounter." We all tensed at that. To acknowledge another as a god or goddess was tantamount to changing the god you worshiped. She had no right to ask that, even if she was a goddess... I shook my head, muttering a to my own god and feeling a faint warmth as I took a deep breath in order to speak. 

"No." She glared at me, opening her mouth to speak but getting cut off. "We were promised unconditional safety in this dungeon from a quest we accepted and completed. Not even gods have the right or power to undo the effects of a completed quest. You cannot hurt us until after we leave this dungeon, and at that point we will be under the protection of our own gods. If you want worshipers, then find them the old-fashioned way. Make them, or earn them." I stood my ground, and saw her expression cool before going neutral. Then she smiled. 

"Very well... But know this. You have claimed my dungeon core as your own. You are what amounts to his 'dungeon fairy' until to release that right to someone more capable. I'll be here, waiting, when you are ready to do so. Until then, I suggest you keep careful watch over my Yorick. After all, a mortal might struggle to raise a dungeon properly, especially where a goddess would find answers with ease." 

Before I could manage to respond, she had moved past us, wings folding as she stepped out and into the hall leading from the dungeon, seeming to vanish in the blink of an eye. I looked around at everyone, and then at Yorick. He looked practically on verge of cracking, and I felt a mild panic. Not because I owned him, or because we were close, but... he'd just protected us from a goddess, and done so at the risk of his own life, while on the verge of death. 

I started pouring my mana into him, mentally begging him to get better. He did slowly begin to mend, my mana filtering through his body and coalescing in an almost physical way near his cracks. When I was almost out of mana and my limbs were beginning to feel shaky, I handed him to Auriel, who wordlessly did what I'd been doing. Her magic was a deep black tinged with bit of red as it filtered through him, turning a darker shade of green as it settled into and healed the crack. 

Val had little left to do once it was her turn. He'd mostly been healed, and I was now holding Auriel. She'd used up all of her mana, and had passed out in doing so. She'd need to summon a spirit somehow so it could spark even one MP inside of her again. Then she'd start regenerating it again. Val had an oddly reddish colored magic, One that showed flickering bits of violently vibrant blue. It wasn't a color I was used to seeing. Blue was a normal color for magic, yes, but... that almost seemed electrically blue. I wondered why it was such an odd color. 

Luckily that was enough to help fix Yorick. Val hadn't even used half of her MP before he was whole again. She didn't stop though, adding more of her mana. I was confused until I heard Yorick's mental voice as she did so. He'd been strangely silent while we healed him, but now he was moaning in what sounded almost like feverish discomfort. I tried to delve deeper into what he was thinking, but I couldn't see any thoughts. He was completely unconscious, mentally. 

I stood, moving over to look at him. I touched Val's shoulder, and she tensed- immediately beginning to pull mana from what I had managed to regain. In the process, I saw what she was seeing. He was completely coated- no... submerged, in magical locks. And Val was somehow undoing them. She was scanning the magical locks in quick succession and rapidly undoing each lock, seeming to be straining as she did so, desperately practicing an odd technique humans had to rapidly replenish mana. Focused breathing sped the process by nearly half again their own personal speed of mana regeneration. 

A loud splash sounded, and Stephen soon rounded a corner, clutching a small creature the size of a child's toy to his chest.  The small man was maybe a foot tall, and had brilliantly gorgeous wings- literally brilliant. He was glowing. Stephan pinched his wings and set him on Val's shoulder, noticing what I was doing and doing the same. He glowed slightly, his demonic traits coming out as she started draining him. He started to copy Val on instinct. 

Magic seemed to shimmer in the air, most of it a mix of brilliant green from the fairy, darker green from myself, and a golden-red color from Stephen. Flecks of electric blue sparked off of her as she channeled the magic, and the locks continued to be undone, slowly and steadily increasing in speed until soon she was undoing them in mere seconds. After that, she just used less mana to undo them. 

I had to let go first, only having a few MP left, I didn't have a choice. I watched them continue as I held Auriel close to my chest, panting was watching as Stephen and the fairy seemed to be drained of light- the fairy managing to escape seconds before it stopped glowing, letting it lazily and weakly drift away. We let it, Stephen gripping Val's shoulders so tightly he looked like he'd break her. 

He rapidly went dark then, quickly running out of magic... and then continuing to give her power. I frowned, looking closely. I watched him, trying to understand how he was still producing magic until I saw his eyes. In front of my eyes, his own gained reddened skin around them, slowly growing increasingly yellow in color as his pupils began to fade from view. He didn't stop, either. 

I watched as he gained black markings of his face, first trailing from the corners of his eyes before appearing from beneath his shirt collar. The markings slowly took shape, the scent of burning meat telling me that they were branding themselves into his skin. This continued for a full ten minutes before an explosion of light from Yorick accompanied his voice as he woke up, desperately... reclaiming his home? 

I ignored Val as she passed out and Stephen held her, barely noticing the black lines vanish from his skin and leave scars behind. No, I listened to Yorick spread his magic back over his home and violently reclaim the people he considered his children. The goddess seemed to have been trying to take over while we were busy. We'd defeated her little puzzle faster than she'd thought we would. 

He was arguing with her again, rather violently. I took Yorick from his place on the ground, and set him on his pedestal, setting up some bedding and placing Auriel on it. There was enough space that Stephen placed Val next to her. We looked at eachother, and silently went off to start looking around. Neither one of us really wanted to be near each other at the moment- we'd both failed to help protect the girls we liked. 

So... what kind of men were we really?