Once more in his life, Artyom stared death in the eyes. He could feel the magical energy flowing through the air into Lensa, coalescing into a single point in her body, as it combined with something else to transform into an unknown but most certainly dangerous element.
The walls of the catacombs shook and debris fell from the ceiling, light dust and pebbles heralding fist and even head-sized pieces of rubble.
“We have to get out of here now! I can-”
Artyom only had enough time to process this single thought before something struck at his heart.
He looked down at his chest and saw it completely intact. Not a drop of blood leaking through skin unmarred nor clothes untorn.
The sensation got worse, and his mind screamed at him to do something, anything about the pain! And then he realized the cause.
His heart was beating too fast.
A wave of primal, crippling fear followed, stabbing through his body like an icicle, sending Artyom to his knees.
The other two next to him fell further, Neitra needing to support her weight with her arms and Sister Elery falling flat to the ground and beginning to hyperventilate.
“S-she did this before,” said Artyom to the two. “When she talked to the other three, they pushed her too hard and she let this out.”
“C-can we do anything about it?” asked Neitra.
Artyom gritted his teeth and looked away from her. Last time, his aura hadn’t been able to do a thing, and the already existing fear fed on his insecurity.
But it wasn’t the first time he’d been hit with such an attack; his mind screamed at him, and his heart told him to give up. But instinct told him to keep fighting.
And fight he did.
Artyom began to channel his aura, first into himself and then into a light pulse around him.
Hope, calm, rebellion, all emotions he’d used before, but now combined into a single force that flushed through his entire body and clashed against the killer ice of fear once more.
Last time it would have utterly failed.
However something about this aura, infused with the Skill granted by [Emissary of Dharma], interacted with Lensa’s attack in a way it hadn’t before.
“[Precipice of Magic and Emotion, Aura’s Commandment]!”
His heart began to settle.
Until he was only feeling terror instead of all-encompassing despair. He felt an out of place smile from the fact he wasn’t at risk of death from the mental attack anymore.
The falling rocks, on the other hand…
Neitra pushed herself off the ground and managed to get to a single knee, while Sister Elery was able to roll onto her back. They were also in a better state, but by the looks of it, not enough of one to run.
Judging from the increasing size of the rubble, they only had a few minutes until the entire place caved in. None of the trio were in a state to leave, especially with Lensa floating over them and capable of ending them herself if she decided to get close.
So that left them one choice. The one choice Artyom tried again and again to take but nobody seemed interested in so far.
He’d just have to try harder.
But he was beaten to the punch by Sister Elery.
“Lensa, please, why are you doing this?” asked the older priestess in between labored breaths. “Think of your family, your humanity! The goddess wouldn’t want you to kill them, she isn’t so cruel as to punish you or her followers so!”
“I’m sorry mama, but you know nothing of the goddess’ actual will,” replied Lensa in a whisper. “She created me for a purpose and I’ve utterly failed her. If I use up my life force in this attack, I can collapse the church and destroy every distraction and testament to my failures, redeeming myself once and for all.”
“There’s that phrase again,” thought Artyom. “The goddess ‘created’ her? Is she not actually human, but instead some kind of divine construct? It makes perfect sense with her strength and durability… and her warped sense of morality.”
“Hold on, won’t you kill Tommy in the attack?” asked Artyom, pivoting from Sister Elery’s emotional pleas to an appeal to her mission. “That’s the last thing the goddess would want you to do.”
“Uh,” said Neitra as she tapped on his shoulder. It looked like a herculean effort. “The sermon just ended when we came down here, Tommy and everyone else already left. It’s just her father upstairs now.”
“That’s right, just the five of us to face judgement,” replied Lensa with a nod.
“He’s still here?!” exclaimed Sister Elery before turning back to Lensa. “My sins have earned me this punishment, but why are you trying to kill your own father too? He’s innocent! He loves you dearly, raised you as his own child, and has devoted his entire life to the goddess. He of all people doesn’t deserve such a fate! Spare him, and spare these two, please!”
For an instant, Lensa looked away and bit her lip at the mention of her father, but soon steeled her eyes and directly faced the three. “He… would understand if it’s for the goddess’ will. He’s always made sacrifices for her, and he would not object if he truly knew what she wanted.”
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“And us?” asked Neitra.
“You and Artyom were never meant to join the hero’s party. I was supposed to get you two killed when you first tried to join, so this is also part of the goddess’ will, albeit somewhat delayed. I don’t know how you two managed to get through the dungeons we sent you into, you both were supposed to die there.”
Neitra’s face turned pale at the words. Despite the terror pounding through her veins from Lensa’s mental attack, her heartbeat started to freeze alongside her expression. “Y-you tried to…”
“If it makes you feel any better, they did the same to me,” said Artyom. “The blessing she gave me back then did something to my mind and it was only thanks to luck I broke out of it before I could get killed. Do you think one person could take on the monster that attacked the inn right after I joined? Especially when it showed up after we’d literally cremated its body.”
“You two risked your lives to help the hero, and Lensa tried to kill you for it?” asked Sister Elery. She turned to look at her daughter, and didn’t recognize the creature in front of her. “Are you even the same little girl I helped raise for so many years?”
“That time was a lot shorter than you remember,” replied Lensa.
“She’s not human,” spat Artyom in a whisper. “And I don’t mean that metaphorically. She said it herself, she was created, and I think she was being literal. Appealing to emotion isn’t going to work.”
Neitra was the first one to nod in response. She turned to the older priestess and asked, “Sister Elery, you showed all of those Skills when we fought, do you have one that could get us out of this?”
“I-I don’t know, but I’ll start trying them out.”
Artyom watched as she slowly began to rise, before clutching her heart and falling back down.
“[Benediction: Absolution from Influence] worked for a moment, but the mental effect reapplied itself soon after. It also cancelled out whatever you’re doing to lessen it, so it hits even harder and throws me back down before I can move. I’ll try [Wellspring of Energy] next.”
While Sister Elery continued to cycle through her myriad of Skills in search of one that might get them out of this situation, Artyom began to wrack his brain for a more logic-based solution.
He hated to admit it, but Lensa was too powerful. Magically, physically, System…ly? She had the leg up on all of them. Thus the only place she lacked was mentally. She wasn’t human, her motivations were known. Her method of logic and morality, albeit in shades of blue-and-orange instead of black-and-white and broken with her current personal crisis, could be understood.
Artyom just needed to convince her to knock this off within her own moral framework.
Easier said than done.
“What will killing everyone here actually accomplish?” asked Artyom. “Will this really help the goddess’ will or is this just to make you feel better about yourself?”
“Does it even matter to you?” asked Neitra with a hiss. “I get to do both this way. She wanted me to kill you two anyway, and I can also punish myself.”
“As I see it, you’re doing this to get away with your failures without having to answer to the goddess for them. Only yourself.”
“You’re wrong!” The falling rubble began to slow until it came to a stop.
“Am I? Is killing yourself part of the goddess’ will?”
“I… n-n y-y…” Lensa began before going quiet. The rubble began to fall again, but at a slower rate.
“I think you broke her even more,” said Neitra with a pout.
“That’s what I get for attempting emotional Judo,” said Artyom with a shake of his head. “But that bought us time, and let me come up with plan B.”
Sister Elery began to slowly rise again, but stopped when she reached her knees. “[Counter Exhaustion] can get me up this far, but I’m running out of Skills. I hope your new idea will work.”
Artyom nodded and turned to Lensa with a smug grin. “You know, one of you four will still have to go out to the frontier after all of this is over.”
Lensa didn’t say anything, but looked at the man from Earth.
“But with you dead, they’ll have to send one of the other three, so the hero’s party will only have two of you left.”
A look of worry began to creep across the lavender haired girl’s face, and as much as she tried to school her expression, it showed clearly enough for everyone in the dimly lit room to pick up.
“And for what? To take out the two of us? I know you all consider us minor nuisances at best, not worth bringing your full might at us.”
“You convinced Tommy to send one of us away. You’re dangerous to keep around.”
“You don’t think I have friends? They know I’m here, and they’ll come running if I happen to disappear.”
“The others won’t give anyone else a chance to join the party, we already decided on that.”
“Who ever said anything about them joining the party? They’ll come as an army, it’ll be war. And if you think I’m dangerous, you’ve seen nothing yet. Many of my friends are stronger or more diabolical than anything you can imagine. Hell, they’ll skip past all of you and take out the Dark Lord themselves to make Tommy’s mission obsolete. Then what control will you all have over him?”
Everyone stared at Artyom with wide eyes.
“Y-you’re bluffing.”
“I’m not. And even if I were, you don’t want to take the risk. And besides, even if my friends are supposedly fake, the deadman’s switch I’ve set up most certainly isn’t.”
“What’s a deadman’s switch?” asked Neitra.
“I’m glad you asked,” replied Artyom with a wolfish grin. “Think of it as a daily check-in I have to perform, and if I ever miss it, whoever’s watching on the other end will follow a specific set of instructions. For example, releasing all of the information I’ve gathered about the party and how you tried to kill me earlier, not to mention all of your other sins.”
Now it was Lensa’s turn to go pale.
Of course, the whole “deadman’s switch” was the actual bluff. But it was the more realistic sounding of the two threats.
“The point I’m trying to make is that it isn’t worth it to kill us, and it’ll help the goddess and your associates more to keep us alive.”
“Y-you…” Lensa’s pale fear began to slowly transform into white-hot rage as her temper began to boil over.
“Yeah, it’s a dirty move on my part, but you get to win from this too.”
“Do you truly think I’d believe a lie like that?”
“It’s the truth! You let us live as minor nuisances, and in return the party gets to keep three of you instead of only two. And… you get your chance at redemption. Somebody has to keep the frontiers safe, and why not you? Pay off your failures by being the one to suffer for them instead of the others.”
Lensa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She slowly exhaled and time seemed to slow for the others. It was only seconds, but felt like minutes or even hours.
And in the end, she opened her eyes with a tired frown.
The rockfall began to slow until it completely stopped, and the mental attack keeping everyone pinned slowly dissipated.
“Remember this, Artyom and Neitra,” said Lensa, looking down on the two. “The goddess will have her way, she always does.”
And with a flash of light, the lavender haired woman disappeared.
Artyom slowly got up, and helped the other two to their feet.
They all looked worse for wear, but otherwise intact. As everyone’s heart rates slowed down back to normal, a wave of exhaustion fell over them. They could still walk and move around, but every motion was sluggish and the world felt dull.
“W-we’re alive,” said Sister Elery, straining to pat dust off her robes. “Thank the goddess… and thank you.”
“No problem,” replied Artyom with a slow and tired nod. “Let’s… head back up.”