Astral Flow

Chapter 40

"Alright, everyone ready?" Aranea asks, placing her hand on the map in front of them.

The group had temporarily taken over the dining table, using it as a meeting area. "We'll go over the current plan one last time."

"Yeah, we are." Ryder says, nerves seeming to spike a bit more than he would've liked as he gazes down at the map of the area.

It was decently drawn, and seemed to show most, if not all, details of the current area.

"Right, then let's begin." Aranea points to what looks like a giant hole marked in the ground, or perhaps it was a pit? "This is the Pit of Absolution... or what remains of it at this point, most of it has been covered by a rather large tree created by some form of magic."

"Creation." Demea chimes in, her face a little more serious than normal. "The person we're going to be fighting against drank from what I can only describe as pure mana, pooled from beyond the cosmos... this gave her the power to create one ultimate spell from beyond the normal understanding of magic."

"Sounds like some pretty heavy stuff then." Teach replies, crossing his arms as he stares down at the map. "I take it that tree is heavily guarded then?"

"Not by your average enemies." Aranea replies, quickly pulling out another parchment and putting it on the table.

On the parchment was a curious drawing of what seemed to be holy looking soldiers, knights, and all sorts of warriors.

They were adorned with white armor with gold trimming, their weapons seemed rather ornate in nature as well.

"This is the legion that followed Saint Lucent on her journey, they were the best of the best in Resovult at their time, blessed by the new God of Light; Cecil."

"Wait, how are they alive?" Alice asks, clearly caught off guard. "I knew some of these people, I watched them march to their deaths..."

"By the Lord's Rite." Laurence calmly replies. "Each Lord chooses what they can do with their Rite. Since Lucent can't currently fight on her own, she instead brought back those she knew would fight on her behalf."

"She brought the dead back to life..." Alice mutters, looking away now.

"No, not fully." Teach cuts in, narrowing his eyes a bit. "As someone who used a Rite it's not that simple, she'd be able to raise the bodies with their memories but it's impossible to call a soul back without it being willing."

"Not without Dark Magic that is." Laurence chimes in once more. "Which brings us to our current dilemma... the necromancer assisting her."

"Ah, don't worry about that, you all can focus on just getting to Lucent." Yuria finally comments, her usual smile on her face. "I've already got that part taken care of, so there's no need to divert our forces thinner than they already are."

"You already got it taken care of?" Aranea asks worryingly, not liking that mischievous smile that never leaves her face.

"Yup, that's why I didn't find you guys sooner, I had my own issues to take care of." Yuria calmly states, that smile never leaving her face. "That was just one of them."

"Alright then... well in that case that means we can kill the enemies and not have to worry about them reviving, our big problem now will be navigating the dungeon and fighting the boss." Aranea continues, pulling out another two pieces of parchment now. "First of all, we don't know how much the dungeon has changed so this map here might be useless." she says as she tosses the map on the table. "Secondly, if you find a room that looks to be the pit, do not enter on your own, if you do you'll be fighting Lucent's personal guard on your own."