Chapter 78: Chapter 62 – Tackling the Rift (Part 2)

"Sorry about those three," Talis said, slowing down to Kanae's pace as they trekked through the tree's walkways. "They can be a bit abrasive, but once you get to know them, they'll start warming up to you."

"I think there's only one person they want to warm up to…" Kanae mumbled.

"You think so? Who might that be? Perhaps the squirreling… or your paladin companion?" he wondered to himself.

What's wrong with this guy? Was he really just dense to their interest in him? 

Jannie, Clara, and Shatiel didn't seem to be at odds with each other when it came to Talis. In fact, what was wrong with them? If they liked him enough to show such burning jealousy, how have they not confessed to him yet?

"Talis, do come here! I bought some sweet buns from a bakery earlier that we may share together," Jannie hollered to him from the front of the group.

"Oh, perfect timing. I'm starving!" Talis hurried to join them, where the elven ladies took turns ripping pieces of their buns to feed him.

Something about their closeness bothered Kanae. It seemed like such a waste not to be more intimate.

"Kanae, do you really think this Rift will have something for us at the end of it?" Will asked as he came up from behind.

"Everyone sounds pretty confident that it will. Why?" Kanae questioned back.

"It's just that… some of the gods can be fickle, and the one just now sounded a lot like Threcia. Maybe not the most meddlesome, but definitely up there," he said.

Like the god who turned Takumi, Manabe, and Ichi into monsters instead of regular human adventurers in this world. It was looking like the Supreme One's office was just a ragtag group of misfit gods with their own issues.

As they entered a set of descending stairs that coiled along the tree trunk, a golden gate appeared behind them and closed off the way back.

"I guess that means we're going the right way?" Edina asked.

A gigantic metal ball manifested at the top of the stairs and began rolling down towards them.

"That definitely means we're going the right way— Run!" Kanae shouted.

The party ran for their lives with the metal ball chasing close behind.

"Isn't there something we can do?!" Will screamed.

What could they do? Kanae was able to fly, but he wouldn't be able to hold anymore than two people.

"Maybe I can stop it!" Talis stopped, turned around, and created on his left arm a magical shield.

The ball, however, also glowed with magic and spikes protruded out all over it.

Talis suddenly forgot how to be brave. 

"Okay, maybe not…"

They turned to run, but Will tripped and stumbled forward, slamming into the others and causing everyone to roll down the stairs in a ball of their own. The party fell into a pile of themselves at the bottom of the stairs, stopping at a wide plaza. Glancing back, the ball of death continued until another golden gate appeared to stop it in its place.

"Whew…" Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Wait, where's Edina?" Kanae asked aloud, his panic growing as he counted their numbers one less than before. "Edina!"

"I'm over here!" Edina waved from a high branch above them.

The squirreling landed gingerly on her feet. She didn't have so much as a scratch on her. Kanae grabbed her shoulders, still shaking from believing she was caught by the metal ball.

"Don't scare me like that. Geez." Kanae sighed.

"Hehe. I'm a squirreling, remember? Trees are my element!" Edina beamed.

"There's another set of stairs going up across the chamber, but the doors are locked." Clara pointed out.

Shatiel casted a bolt of magic at the gate, but nothing happened.

"I can't dispel it," the elven girl said.

"Everyone spread out. Maybe there's a lever or something," Talis suggested.

Kanae walked up to the other gate. It was only tall enough that they couldn't climb or jump it. The vertical rods made it difficult to grab hold of anything.

Maybe…

Earlier, Edina was on a branch above this area.

Kanae took flight. Thankfully, he was able to do so without showing his wings. While human form was active, his skills still remained available to him. He was just about to crest over the gate when a powerful divine shock fried him crispy.

"Ow…"

"Kanae!" Edina and Will came running, and the paladin immediately started healing him.

"What happened?" Talis asked.

"I tried to fly over it, but I guess we're really stuck here," Kanae said.

"Wait a minute." Clara tightened her gaze on Kanae. "Since when can a human fly?"

Kanae, Edina, and Will twitched. The two of them turned to him like deers in headlights.

"I, uh… Well, my class—"

"Well, lookie here! You made it without getting flattened like pancakes!" Goddess Threcia's voice boomed.

Everyone freaked out when the metal ball passed through the gates like a ghost, but it didn't roll at them like before. Instead, it stayed perfectly still.

"Your first trial is a test of knowledge. Start getting those brain juices flowing, because you're going to need it. Here is your question: currently, how many demigods are there?" Threcia asked.

"Oh, that's easy. Seven," Talis answered with unwavering confidence.

"Buubuu! Incorrect!"

"What?!" Everyone gasped.

"But there's only seven! Even at the Church of Many, there are seven statues of them!" Talis insisted.

"Buubuu! Buubuu! Incorrect!"

"Arenade… your godly coworker is annoying…" Kanae muttered.

The giant metal ball melted before their eyes, then reshaped into a golem. It charged right at them and swung a massive arm.

Talis conjured his magic shield again, stopping the swing and skidding several feet away from the impact.

"Edina!" Kanae shouted.

"I'm ready!" Edina nodded, lifting her staff into the air. "Arise, Bone Brute!"

At the same time, Kanae bonded with the necromancer and created the same knight-like bone monster summoned at the Church of One.

Clara ran behind the metal golem and spewed a stream of flames from her ring, causing it to burn brightly from the heat like an ingot right out of the forge. Made brittle by the fires, Edina's empowered bone brute punched a hole through the golem and caused cracks all over it. Kanae unfurled his dragonscale whip to finish it off with a deafening crack to its head, shattering it completely.

The metal golem, broken into many pieces, melted and formed into a pool.

"Oh, nice job! But be careful with your next answer— continue to make wrong guesses and the golem becomes even stronger," Threcia warned.

"That's not fair!" Talis exclaimed. "There are only—"

All three of Talis' elven companions slapped a hand over his mouth.

"What could the answer be? In my religious studies, The Many only had that number of demigods." Will fell into thought, tapping his chin.

"What do you think, Edina?" Kanae asked, but the squirreling had fallen too deep into heat to think of anything else. With her legs squeezed together and both hands between her thighs, she looked ready to throw herself down to be taken advantage of.

So Kanae had to avert his gaze before actually giving into temptation.

If only Arenade was here. Maybe she would—

"Hold on… The question prefaced with 'currently', and because Arenade isn't a demigoddess anymore…" 

"Did you think of something?" Will asked.

"It's six! There's currently six demigods!" Kanae answered.

"You idiot! There's no way that's the right answer!" Clara protested, turning Kanae around by the shoulders. "Are you trying to get us killed?"

"Correct! Good job! There are currently only six demigods," Threcia said.

"Six… Is there a missing demigod?" Jannie repeated in confusion.

While they were going through an existential crisis, the other side of the gates swung open.

"Well, whatever the case… It seems we're allowed to pass," Talis said.

As the group took a step forward, columns of blinding light beamed down on them.

Kanae slowly opened his eyes and found them dangling in midair.

"Eeek! This is too high!" Clara whined.

"I-I don't want to be here anymore…" Shatiel cried.

All of them were trapped inside in individual birdcages arranged in a circle, hanging by vines attached to a branch above. Below them was a fall straight down to nowhere.

"What's going on?" Talis shouted.

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"This is your second trial. Truth or Dare! Play four rounds successfully, and you all win! I saw this game in another world once played by teenagers. Oh, youth. How I've missed you," Threcia hummed merrily to herself.

Kanae pursed his lips, unimpressed by Threcia's choice of trials so far.

An ethereal bottle suddenly appeared in the middle of the group and began to spin. It landed squarely on Edina.

"Truth or dare?" Threcia asked.

"Uh… dare?" Edina said.

"Brave squirreling! I dare you to… strip naked for the rest of the trial!"

"What? That's it?" The squirreling started taking off her clothes, and the others looked away.

Kanae, on the other hand, watched the strip show intently as a feast for his eyes. As soon as Edina was down to nothing but her birthday suit, she threw her arms out.

"Happy? Was this supposed to be hard?" Edina asked.

"Hmm… It's more fun when you have shame…" Disappointed, Threcia sighed heavily.

"What next—" Before Edina could ask, she vanished.

"Edina!" Kanae cried.

"Relax! I've sent her back safely onto solid ground. Time for the next one!"

The bottle began to spin again and landed on Will this time.

When asked, he said, "I think I would like to keep my equipment on… so, truth."

"Why did you join up with Kanae again?" Threcia asked.

Kanae and Will locked eyes.

"I… er… It's… It's because I want to have sex with her again…" Will answered.

"I mean, I knew that as much." Kanae shrugged.

Will opened his mouth to speak, but he vanished before uttering a word.

Jannie, Clara, and Shatiel glared at Kanae.

"Slut," they muttered at the same time.

"Hmph. That only makes me excited," Kanae teased.

Immediately, the bottle started spinning again and landed on Shatiel.

"Uhm… Truth!" Shatiel declared.

"Huu-huu~ Is it true that you are in love with Talis?" Threcia asked.

Shatiel turned bright red, and so did Jannie and Clara. Judging by their reactions, they already knew this truth about each other. The odd one out of their party, however, didn't…

"Shatiel, is that really true?" Talis asked her.

This was her chance. Kanae silently cheered her on even though it had nothing to do with him. 

"N-No, it's not true!" Shatiel exclaimed.

The floor of Shatiel's birdcage gave way, and she fell through.

"Shatiel!" everyone screamed.

Kanae threw his whip, barely catching the shy elf by the wrist. He almost lost his own footing from her swinging like a pendulum underneath. Thank god Shatiel was light. If it was any of the other two elves, or Talis with all his armor for that matter, he might not have been able to hold them.

"I-I don't want to die…" Shatiel cried.

"Hang on…" Kanae told her.

"Oh, that's not fair. But I will allow it! The game continues!" Threcia declared, spinning the bottle again.

It landed directly between Jannie and Clara.

"A two for one, is it? This should be fun! Truth or dare?" she asked.

The two elves traded glances, took one look at their hanging companion and at Talis, and then answered at the same time, "Dare!"

"I dare you two to… flash your god-given badonkers!" 

Jannie and Clara's jaws dropped.

"You have to do it! I'll even look away, so please!" Talis faced away and shut his eyes.

"Nu-uh. That's boring," Threcia said.

Talis tensed up and turned around, keeping his eyes peeled at his two elven party members.

"Do it, damn it!" Kanae shouted. "I only have one whip!"

"You pervert. You just want to see us topless, don't you?" Jannie accused him.

"Well… I won't deny it, but… your lives are literally at stake here!"

It didn't look like they were budging. There was something about their prudishness while Talis was around that got the better of their survival instincts.

Kanae had no other choice. Both of them should only be a few levels higher, and although the charm skill was a stat value lower without the bracelet, he should still be able to compel them just enough to do it.

Quietly, Kanae whispered the charm spell in their direction. They shuddered like a chilly breeze had blown in and looked none the wiser what happened.

"Take your tops off already!" Kanae ordered.

"What the… I… " Jannie started moving to undress first since her will was weaker.

Their mental resistance was strong, but as a succubus, so was Kanae.

"Why am I… Is this Threcia's doing?" Clara asked.

Don't out me now, Threcia… Kanae quietly prayed, only to receive laughter in the distance.

Eventually, both elves loosened their clothes enough to lower it down beneath their breasts. Their nice, shapely bounds were even more of a delight to see, unrestrained by the outfits that hid them. It occurred to Kanae how lucky he had been that Arenade wore a priestly robe that was somewhat revealing, but neither of them compared to how stacked she was.

"Well done!" Threcia exclaimed, then spirited them away as the two were about to complain. "Now, one more game."

Since Shatiel failed, they only had three successes. It was up to Talis or Kanae now, and as fate would have it, the bottle landed on the latter.

"Truth," Kanae said.

"Answer truthfully: what is your greatest regret?" Threcia asked.

Greatest regret? Kanae wasn't sure where to begin. However, his heart weighed heavily and sank into his stomach everytime he thought back to Teana. That was where things started going down hill and was why Arenade left the party. They could have all been together, like a happy family. Except he betrayed their trust. He did exactly what he tried to Arenade fight against.

"My greatest regret… is leaving my daughter Teana behind…" Kanae answered with deep remorse, but saying it out loud lifted a burden from his shoulders.

"You have a daughter?" Talis asked.

"And if you had a choice to do it over again, would you do things differently?" Threcia pressed further.

"I would," he answered, more confident than ever. "Even if it puts me in danger."

All of them were bathed in light and transported back to the plaza. Edina was still naked, and Jannie and Clara were blushing hard from having flashed them.

"Are you okay?" Kanae asked, unwinding the whip from Shatiel's wrist.

The elf nodded tearfully.

At least everyone was safe, and the way was open now. The group continued up the stairs, hoping that another giant metal ball wouldn't fall on them again. But…

Kanae couldn't stop throwing glances at Edina.

"Are you really staying naked?" Kanae asked.

"Well, I don't have my clothes anymore. They just disappeared when I got dumped on my butt back in the plaza. Hopefully I get 'em back when we're done," Edina said, using her large fluffy tail to cover her most important bits.

The party ascended the steps until they reached a large half-circle balcony. There were no more stairs going up, and the only path was a set of ornate doors embedded into the tree trunk that were shut.

"Might as well try opening it first," Edina said.

"Champions, you have come far where many have surprisingly failed. I'm telling you, there's a lot of dumb and dishonest people that failed before. Color me impressed! Your prizes lay behind this door, however…"

Swirling flames erupted from the ground and sent Edina crashing into Kanae's arms.

A tall draconic woman, with similar features to Estaline, stepped out of the fires. Unlike the drakeling, she didn't have red scales. She had a somewhat crimson tint to her skin, a much thicker and longer tail, and fiery hair that came alive. Although she didn't have horns, something like finned ears extended out the side of her head.

"Is… Is that who I think it is…?" Talis asked.

"Th-Threcia!" Kanae gasped.

"For the third and final trial, you have to defeat me! Er, well… an avatar of me because fighting the real me won't be fair. Careful though. Even in this form, my flames burn hot!" Demigoddess Threcia grinned.

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