Chapter 163: 70: Obstacle Course – Part 2

And fire and brimstone fell upon their heads.

The girls not only have to deal with dust and boulders, but now molten lumps of rock are coming towards us, too.

"I don't think that they can divert that one," Alissa says as she looks up at the sky.

We pull the ship out of the smoke river for a minute, and a thick, long stream of cooling lava falls through it.

We return to the sky road, but don't stay on it for long as more and more hot and cooled rocks, far larger than what we can deal with, cross with our path.

Ciel casts [Beam] at one small lump of lava, but it suddenly flies off-course, avoiding her spell.

"I CAN'T STOP THAT ONE!" She yells and activates [Wind Shield].

The lump continues changing its course, only stopping when it's shooting towards the middle of the ship's deck.

"ELEMENTAL!" Alissa warns us as it enters the range of her [Sense Presence].

The girls clutch their weapons and get ready for combat.

The lava elemental crashes into the planks, making Yunia grit her teeth in anger. Then the lava takes the shape of a bald, muscular man.

It's raining men! Hallelujah!

Roxanne opens up with a [Torrent] and hits the elemental directly in the chest. His (?) arm suddenly takes the shape of a shield and blocks Roxanne's continuous spell.

The glowing rock that is his shield arm quickly cools off, creating a cloud of steam which blocks our view.

Roxanne stops her spell and manipulates the steam to clear it away. The elemental's other arm is now a spear, and it stands in a combat stance, motionless like a statue. His feet are causing the planks to light up into a small fire.

Hana grabs her steel war hammer, and Lina [Switch]es her axe to a hammer.

Hana is the first to move, attacking it from the front; Lina moves a second later, aiming for its back; Roxanne, Aoi, and Yunia charge spells; the golems keep their boulders at the ready, holding themselves back in fear of hurting Hana or Lina; and Ciel remains watching the skies, playing a fantasy version of Asteroids.

With just a nudge, I direct the girls to attack in sync. Hana aims high while Lina aims low.

The elemental's head doesn't even look at them, he just uses his sword to deflect Lina and his shield to block Hana.

A loud thud resounds through the air as Hana's hammer strikes the cooled lava shield dead on, pulverizing a small amount of rock. Lina's hammer slides along the elemental's sword, then hits his folded arm, spilling a few drops of lava onto the deck.

The elemental goes for a counter, trying to pivot his red hot sword around Lina's shield, but then his arm suddenly stops in an awkward position, and Yunia smiles triumphantly.

Lina deflects his Life-chained arm upwards and strikes at his knee, her favorite spot. It bends awkwardly and the elemental is forced to kneel, though I don't think that his knee has bones or cartilage that can be damaged.

Hana bashes her shield against the elemental's, throwing it off balance and making it fall, then Lina squashes its head, splattering lava everywhere, but it's not dead yet.

"Ready!" Roxanne yells in my soul space.

Hana and Lina heed her warning and jump away, then a meter-wide [Torrent] slams against elemental. Its shield isn't wide enough to protect it, so its entire body gets cooled off by the spell, creating a small localized steam explosion.

"Kweh!" Aoi yells in my soul space.

Roxanne clears the steam away, and Aoi releases an enlarged fireball, which then hits the elemental's shield, completely obliterating his arm.

His movements dull considerably, leaving him wide open. His chest starts to glow, which I believe means that he's heating himself up again, but the golems don't let it rest and release their boulders, which then start smashing the elemental to dust.

"It's dead," Alissa says, and they stop.

The girls sigh and return to playing asteroid defense, but a few minutes later, three more lava elementals land on the deck. My mana is dangerously low, so I won't be participate in this battle.

"I hate this part of the dungeon!" Yunia complains, seeing the damage that the elementals are doing to the ship.

Roxanne immediately fires off another thick [Torrent] and solidifies the first elemental. Ciel turns around for a short moment, casts [Beam], and pulverizes its arms, then Roxanne explodes its knees, and the golems finish it off.

The second one lands in front of Aoi, who immediately fires a crude mix of [Conjure Water], which she can cast perfectly, and [Torrent], which she hasn't fully learned yet. She wildly spews water at it like a certain turtle, then Hana wacks its shoulder, cracking it.

Aoi jumps at it, then grabs its weakened arm and breaks it off.

"WEEAK!" She roars, then starts to cast her crude [Conjure/Torrent] again to cool off the rest of its body while grappling the other arm. Hana wacks whatever spot is cooled enough, and they slowly break it into pieces.

Yunia holds off the last elemental while Lina casts small [Torrent]s repeatedly. She manages to solidify an arm that instantly gets chopped off with [Searing Blade].

Hah, now that's funny, using heat against a damn lava elemental.

Roxanne and the golems turn to Yunia's elemental. Roxanne casts [Drown] on him, which allows her to prevent the steam from escaping, and they bash it into dust.

Another elemental lands on the deck, and Lina and Yunia engage it.

I unsummon the wind elementals, switching them out for water elementals, who can solidify the lava elementals before they land on the ship. Then I bite the bullet and use [Redirect Mana] to refill my MP.

I think that after today, I'll need to rest for a while.

Dodge islands and huge lumps of molten rock; clear the path of dust and toxic smoke; destroy the incoming boulders and lava elementals; admire the environment as a Godsdamned apocalypse continues all around us. The girls are working non-stop, but I prefer this over the rapids. At least we aren't at risk of crashing the ship against a hidden islet.

As the clouds turn red, then yellow, the volcanic eruption reduces in intensity until it stops, then we fly past the island. The elementals stop coming at us, allowing Yunia to make quick repairs to the deck.

The toxic smoke coming off the volcano is left behind, and the islands stop crashing against one another.

We squeeze past one last island collison, then we suddenly enter a sphere of calmness, the eye of the storm. In the center, there's a literal eye staring at us.

"Oh, fuck!" I exclaim, stunned at the sight. The more I stare, the more I "itch" to go into the eye.

Yellow clouds; dark, toxic smoke; lighting arcs; flames; lava; rocks, and dust. All these things are chaotically mixed together, yet they are shaped into a huge eye the size of a castle.

"FLY US CLOSER!" Ciel yells.

Roxanne wants the same, but is too creeped out to say anything. Yunia swallows an Eia pill, then slowly walks forward towards the bow, a completely serious expression stamped on her face. Aoi is conflicted, she feels the same as I do, but the Eye is too threatening to her. The rest of the girls don't feel anything and look oddly at Ciel.

"Why?" Lina asks her.

She grips her glaive harder and grits her teeth. "I know that this sounds crazy, but I really feel like we should go into the Eye," she responds.

We slow down the ship, and I yell, "Meeting time!"

The Eye is just creepily staring at us, but nothing else is happening, so it seems like we're safe, for now.

We group into a small circle in the middle of the deck while Jarn stays at the controls.

"Okay, starting up, if you feel like entering the Eye, raise your hand, I'm not talking about if we should, only if you feel," I say.

Ciel, Roxanne, Aoi, Yunia, and I raise our hands.

"By the way, the golems count, too," I add.

"We feel nothing," Ted says.

"So, the mages of our group feel like entering?" Roxanne questions.

"Aren't the golems more magical? They move by using [Telekinesis], after all," Lina says.

"They also lack a lot in the perception department. I don't think they can even resist any sort of [Illusion Magic]," Alissa says.

"If the golems aren't affected, and we are, then it isn't a spell giving us this odd feeling, right?" I question.

"Possibly, unless the spell was targeted specifically at you five," Alissa says.

"I've been feeling like going to the Eye ever since we entered this maelstrom," Ciel says.

"And why only you?" Yunia asks Ciel.

"She was also acting slightly odd during the fight with the baby," Lina adds.

"Her 'Perception' isn't particularly high," Alissa says.

"Her compassion is, so I think it makes sense that she would feel like that near the baby, but not here," I say.

"The only things that changed since that fight were a few levels and the glaive," Roxanne says.

We all turn to Ciel, then we scan over her and her golden glaive. She stiffens and blushes from the attention.

"Could the Eye have something to do with [Light Magic]?" She suddenly asks.

"Hm… I can't feel any mana coming from it to confirm that," I say.

"Send a summon over there, then we'll watch to see how it reacts," Lina says, and I nod in agreement.

"I'm feeling an odd type of Life coming from the Eye," Yunia says.

"Can you elaborate?" I ask.

She shakes her head. "It's too far for me to see any details," she answers.

"Alright, so let's stay on the Looping Winds and observe the Eye until we reach the closest point to it, then we'll send a summon inside to check things out," I say, and the girls nod.

The wind slowly loses power as we approach the anchor, which is right beside the Eye. Curious how we only saw a few "obstacles" in the Remote Stability Scanner when we looked into the center of the maelstrom. I think we only saw the rocks of the Eye and nothing else.

We stay quiet along the way and relax while we recover our MP. The Eye slowly follows us, subtly turning as we fly closer to it.

Contrary to Sauron, his sibling is much more chill and less threatening. Creepy, yes, but it's more as if he's obsessively curious instead of trying to rape your mind. After The Lady, none of us is in the mood for more mind or soul fuckery.

Its sclera is composed of clouds, volcanic smoke, and dust, all swirling around in an oddly calming storm. Its iris is made up of a wild mix of lighting arcs, flames, lava, and rocks. Its pupil is a dark and empty hole, and seemingly the source of my "itch."

We finally reach the center of the anchor, which is the closest spot to the Eye, and leave the Looping Winds. We park the ship in the sky, and I summon a Sky Stalker to scout the pupil alongside a Holly.

"I'm starting to feel it, too," Alissa says.

Yunia chuckles and says, "Nothing about this dungeon is simple."

"Considering who made this, I must say that this is as expected," Lina says.

"It's very fun," Aoi comments, and Hana nods.

The summons slowly make their way in, and I share their sight with the bound girls. The pupil isn't actually dark, it's just lined with dark smoke, giving it the impression that it's dark.

They enter the eye and continue deeper into the tunnel of smoke. It feels like they're gradually being enveloped by it, and even I get chills at the eeriness of this.

The Holly notices how the tunnel ends in smoke, then a hole suddenly opens for them, and a faint blue light escapes from it.

Within that hole, they see a spherical chamber lined by the dark smoke, and many long, dark stone platforms slowly floating around a glowing orb, the source of the blue light.

We spend long tense minutes simply watching the summons as they explore all of the sphere. Nothing interesting happens, so we start another discussion on what to do.

"That orb, that's what's calling us," Ciel says.

"Is that a gem?" Lina questions.

"I have to get close to it to use an Appraisal skill," I say.

"What if it's a living being? There's a source of Life in there, after all," Yunia questions.

"We'll hope that it isn't hostile?" Hana says with a wry smile.

"I can [Fly] to the platforms, then I'll teleport you girls to it if we think that it's safe," I say.

"I'll go with you. So, who else wants to fly with us?" Ciel asks.

"I can't fly that far," Hana says.

"I might, but it's going to use up a lot of my mana," Roxanne says.

"I can! I think that I can even carry someone," Aoi says with excitement.

"So, who wants to ride Aoi?" I ask.

"I can fire arrows while flying if you give me some points in [Mounted Archery]," Alissa says.

I nod towards Alissa and say, "I think you're the best choice."

After some brief preparations, we're ready to depart. I take only Suzy with me because the other golems have to pilot the ship in case of trouble.

Suzy grips my helmet, with [Telekinesis] countering her weight enough that she's so light that I don't even notice her; Ciel and I jump and cast [Fly]; Aoi takes a running start and jumps off of the ship, then spreads her wings wide and starts flapping.

We slowly make our way into the Eye, and megalophobia gives us repeated chills during the trip.

We enter the inner chamber of the Eye after a few minutes, then I unsummon the two scouts, and we land on the platform closest to the orb.

I use [Jewel Appraisal] on the orb, and it tells me that this is simple silica glass.

I feel my "itch" increasing in intensity the longer that I stare at it. It's like staring down a dark hole, and at the same time, it's like looking at a fragile soap bubble, just waiting to be popped.

I feel like this orb…

"… Is a spell…" We all say in unison.

We look at each other with wry smiles, and I shake my head. "This is so odd," I say.

"Is this whole maelstrom a single spell?" Ciel questions.

"But why are we getting 'drawn' to it?" I question back.

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Ciel shrugs and sighs.

"I'll open a [Gate] to the rest of the girls," I say, and they nod.

They come through and admire the orb. Yunia frowns and tilts her head to one side in confusion, then to other, and then again, and again. She's completely flabbergasted.

"This is a spell," she concludes, then looks around, and we agree. "But there's something living inside the orb."

I use [Sense Soul] on it, and the first thing that I see is a huge mana organ. It's so large that it seems like it's endless.

"I feel like this dungeon is playing with us…" I say, starting to feel a little anxious.

"So, it's daring you to interrupt the maelstrom?" Roxanne asks with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm uncomfortable with the way we've been lured here," Ciel says with a frown.

We look at her, then we look around warily.

"I'm uncomfortable with your choice of words," Roxanne says with a small smirk.

"The dungeon likes to give us trials, and he hasn't shown us a single trap yet, so this is just another challenge, but it was made specifically for us," Lina calmly says.

"So there is something or someone with intelligence controlling it?" I question.

"You said you saw this dungeon in a vision? Maybe it was made for someone like us, but not us, specifically," Yunia says.

"Hm… so many questions, so few answers," I hum in thought and ponder.

Gify squeezes out of my helmet, then flies to the top of my head. "Gih!"

I look at Alissa and smile. "If even Gify is telling me to do it…"

She narrows her eyes at me.

"This is exactly what we needed," Lina comes to my aid.

"If the orb doesn't suddenly try to kill us when we attempt to interrupt the spell, then I think that this is doable," Yunia piles on.

"I want to investigate why I reacted so strongly to the orb, too," Ciel says.

Alissa sighs and shakes her head. "This time I understand why we have to do this," Alissa says, then she pokes me hard in the forehead. "But you have been acting too recklessly lately, so you still owe me some peace for my worries."

I grab her hand and pull off her glove so that I can kiss her skin directly. "I understand. I'm trying to be better," I calmly respond.

"I think that only Wolfy, Ciel, and I should stay here, just in case," Yunia says.

"Alissa's blessing still helps me concentrate," I say.

Alissa grunts in satisfaction and flashes a smug smile.

Roxanne, Hana, Lina, and Aoi pout, though Aoi's pout barely counts since her lips are rather thin.

"We'll leave if you start to do something dangerous," Roxanne says.

Yunia shrugs and sighs.

I take off my helmet, and Gify jumps on my head, then I pull out two sofas from my "Items" and sit down with a sigh. I open my arms, and Alissa sits down on one side, then Ciel sits on the other.

I pull them both into a hug, then I look at Yunia with a smug smile.

"My lap is still empty," I say and grin towards her.

She rolls her eyes, then graciously sits on my lap and keeps her posture perfectly straight like a proper princess. The other girls sit down on the other sofa and relax.

"You can lean on me," I say.

Yunia leans back and the back of her chestplate squishes my face.

She laughs and asks, "Is that comfortable for you? Or would you prefer this position?" She spreads my legs and sits on the floor, then rests her head against my knee.

"Oh yeah, this is much better," I say with a grin.

Suzy flies off my helmet and lands on my shoulder, then rests her body against my cheek. Her cuteness makes Ciel very happy.

The girls release their tied-up hair, allowing me to play with them. Alissa's orange fox ears have to fold inside her helmet, so, when she frees them, it feels even better than taking off a bra after a long day.

The fact that I know how that feels makes me a little uncomfortable. Gods… I hope that I don't become a girl after being bound to them for our entire lives.

I massage a furry ear and play with Ciel's dark hair while I study the orb and ponder how to interrupt a spell that can fling islands at us.

I try to interrupt it the usual way, by "grabbing" the spell, then trying to rip it apart, but I feel like I'm pounding my fists against a solid brick wall. This is clearly not the way, it's a test for [Redirect Mana].

The conflict of wills over mana is what causes a bending of the laws of reality, so, can I use [Redirect Mana] without using my "Willpower"? The skill seemingly benefits from both "Willpower" and "Intelligence," but we know that only the will bends the laws of reality, so, how do I use "Intelligence" to fuel [Redirect Mana]…?

"If the orb is a living being, does it have emotions?" Ciel asks.

"What, do you think that you're an empath, now?" I question her with a smile.

"What's that?" Alissa asks.

"Someone that can read other people's emotions," I answer.

"Well, she is a priestess of the Goddess of Love," Alissa says.

"Aren't you the one with a God's Blessing?" Yunia asks her.

"Yes, but it's because of my love for and dedication to Wolfy," Alissa proudly says.

Yunia raises her eyebrows in surprise and stays silent.

"The orb seems to be a life form with a rather simple soul, except for the almost endless mana organ," I say.

"It could've targeted Ciel first because she's the most empathetic of us," Yunia says.

"So, it really cast a spell on us?" I question.

The spinning platforms suddenly slow down, and we freeze, wary of any movement.

After a few seconds, the platforms regain their speed. Ciel frowns and stays silent, in  deep thought.

"Okay… what was that?" Roxanne asks, but no one knows how to answer her.

I gently tug Ciel's ear and ask, "What's wrong?"

She looks up at me and bites her lip. "I think that we made the orb 'sad,'" she answers.

I raise an eyebrow questioningly.

She turns to the orb and continues, "I don't understand how, but I felt like I was hit by a wave of something, then I felt guilty, as if I had offended the orb, but the feeling lasted only for a second, and it left me feeling like something… 'foreign' had touched me, like when you sit on a sofa that was warmed by someone else."

"A small amount of Life burst out from the orb when the platforms slowed down, maybe you felt that?" Yunia questions.

"I'm not sensitive to Life; when we drank that Eia extract, I couldn't even see the webs of Life," Ciel says.

"So you felt something else?" I question, and the platforms bump once.

"Holy shit, it can hear us," Hana says.

Another bump.

"Are you hostile?" I immediately ask.

The platforms slow down again.

"It's sad," Ciel says.

Once they speed up, I ask again, "Do you want us to interrupt your spell?"

It bumps our platform in response, then they all slow down.

"It's… tired?" Ciel says and knits her eyebrows in confusion.

I look into the orb's mana organ and notice that it's now almost entirely depleted when it was nearly full just a few seconds ago.

"Holy shit," I mutter and relay that info to the girls.

"Losing concentration while controlling a spell can make it waste a lot of your mana," Roxanne says.

"And a spell so big that it flings islands around must consume an inconceivably large amount of mana," I say, and Roxanne nods.

And so, the plot thickens.

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