Chapter 40: 37. Bloody Rituals

"Minion, where is your leader," Annette asked demandingly. She is tired and worn.

"I am the boss!" Bones says with his chest puffed out, arms on hips. His seemingly go-to boss stance. "Do you mean the human who summons me and obeys my commands?"

"Ugh!" Annette exhales her frustration. "I have no time for this. Yes, the human that summoned this useless pile of bones that I can't even properly communicate with. How do you even function without a mind of your own? That's rhetorical. I don't want an answer."

"Cap is currently on a quest that I sent him on. At this point in the quest, he's probably plunging into a trap. It's hard to tell at the moment." Bones shifts his stance. His arms slide behind his back, and his hands interlock. Fortunately, he hasn't started pacing.

Shamelessly Bones dives into Annette's critique defending his honor like it was a herd of helpless kids. "I'm more than a pile of bones. I'm a nearly perfect construction of bones and mana. I love swords, music, and big hats." He pauses for dramatic flair. Annette isn't experienced in the words of Bones and fails to interject and cut him off.

Hands still clasped behind his back, Bones begins pacing. His steps bear the weight of the grief seeping from his eyes. "I lost my only friends when I had to sacrifice my summoner for his well-being. Chad, Chad 2, Chad 3, Dead Scorpion, Other Dead Scorpion, Other Dead Scorpion Jr, Stacy, Macy, and Gracy—all gone. We didn't even get to say good buy."

The pacing stops. Bones is now facing Annette, his head lighter from the release of grief. Once again, Annette misses her chance to evade further monologuing. "I'm more complex than just bones and would appreciate it if you wouldn't try to define my whole existence so simply." Bones' words exude pride. "And I'm not mindless, thank you very much. Maybe the problem with your communication lies solely with you. You might not be as good as you think you are. You ever considered that? Not rhetorical, by the way!"

Silence fills the cave. The only appropriate response. Annette, unfazed by Bones' snark, stands still. Her eyes dim, and her arms drop in the slightest. Despite her lowly manner, she still maintains her elegance. "Damn. We are damned," She whispers softly. 

Putting both hands up, Bones relaxes his posture as if he's trying to ease some tension. The tension he created. "Easy now. What do you mean by that? But also welcome to my life."

The response gets a curious look out of Annette. Taking the opening, she fills Bones in on all the recent happenings. She makes her offer, and Bones lets her know he will get the word to me. 

When Bones leaves, I see Nette taking a keen interest in my home. She studies everything she sees, even taking inventory of the type of food Bones has preserved. She commands most of her sisters to hunker down and wait for my return. The others she sends out into the deep woods. 

Later in the day, her sisters return with what looks like food similar to what I have in stock. Annette directs the spiders into the cave. While wrapping up all the food supply, her body suddenly tenses. The horde has found them once again. 

She brings all her sisters into the camp, directing them on spinning up defensible webbing. She then leads the defense in the ensuing attack. She is deadly with her bow. Each shot laced with poison brings a new target down. Nette uses all the webbing to her advantage. One moment she is on the ground firing. The next, she is slinging into a tree firing from above. Always moving from one advantage spot to the next. 

Despite her and her sister's best efforts, the horde is too much. Even without much mana being used on their end, the invader's superior numbers are enough that this was never much of a battle. Spiders fall by the dozens.

As a last-ditch effort to buy time, the Queen lets out a powerful mental probe that manages to drive the attackers back for the time being. Fearful of another mental blast, the horde regroups and plans for the next strike. The Queen retreats into my den with her soldiers. The mental probing drains her last bits of mana, making her incapable of escape. None of her sisters will flee despite all of her urgings. In her mind, her last gambit was a waste. 

In her final moment, her emotions and thoughts are raw and real. Annette loved life. All the trials and hardships. The wins and success. Learning was her passion. And now that she was so close to learning more about people, her life was ending. Despair and sorrow for her and her people racked her soul. 

Not done yet, Annette would fight to the bitter end with whatever strength she could recover. As she exits the cave, emotions rage again; this time, it is joy and renewal. The dragon has come.  

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The last memory I see is of a rugged man in tattered clothing launching himself from a spinning dragon. His jump sends him twenty feet away from the beast. Landing, his right leg is at an angle, and his left leg is slightly bent and in line with the right. He picks up two swords as he slides another five feet to a stop. Snapping his head up flicks the hair away from his face. He looks around briefly and begins taking down the unlucky horde near him. 

The surge of information takes a brief moment to process. The last bit makes me smile, if only internally. It gets weird if I'm openly hyped about myself, especially given the greater context of Annette's situation. By the time I finish processing the memories, we have passed the double peaks and are now approaching Mount Tall. 

The tall mountain itself is surrounded by thick dark shadows. I got lost in the same shadow-like fog when I tried to find my way to the coast. Presumably, this is the preparation Gene was making. The fog covering the mountain is thick. Even with dark vision, my sight is restricted. I can't actually see the mountain. Past experience is all that has me convinced that it is there.  

Thankfully Fury can navigate through the shadow. At the cave entrance, we find a party of bugbears searching for the opening. Had it not been for the fog, I'm sure they would have discovered it by now. Honestly, Fury is the only reason I know where the entrance is or that there were bugbears around. 

The dragon disposes of the intruders quickly with a fierce black flame. Only when he is confident there is no more threat around us, Fury takes us to the cave. Once the cave is sealed back up, we are greeted by Gene. It now occurs to me that she could have played a direct role in the dragon's uncanny navigation. For good measure, I add another layer of thickness to the cave door before we descend into the cavern. 

Annette walks to the center where I am standing in the cavern, having just completed the blood circles. She grabs my hand, looks me in the eye, and blinks several times. Memories and knowledge intrude into my mind. However, they don't unravel in my mind. They are currently in a holding state, waiting for me to engage them.

"These are memory packets. Open them when you have time to spare. They hold information that will benefit us both. Make good use of them." Annette tells me through thought. The scene is awkward, and I can't help but think that was part of her intentions. It is confirmed when she gives a sly grin when she walks away. Freaking spiders. 

We follow the same steps as before. Bones holds the dungeon core and mimics the rhythm of the mana inside with his cycling mana. Fury feeds his life into the core and tucks into a tight ball of dragon mass. Annette, apprehensively and eagerly, does the same, feeding her black ichor into the core. 

I bloody the grounds again with my own blood creating two neat circles that encircle the ritual participants. Then I join them in the middle and feed my mana into the core.

Apprehension on Annette's face gives way entirely to eagerness. Her desire for life overwhelms her uncertainty. Contrastingly, Fury, in his tucked-up state, breathes lazily. A wide scar can be seen on his exposed side, and many of his scales have been chipped. Before, I assumed Fury was tucking in tightly to make the symbol process easier. Now, I am unsure if the worn dragon wasn't just trying to catch some sleep.

I feed all of my dark mana into the core and begin feeding in my death mana. All the while, Bones is grinning maniacally. Not once has his enthusiasm wavered. Like Annette, his greatest desire is right before him in the palm of his hands.

Standing off to the side of the ritual, Gene is as stoic as I've ever seen her. She is as tired as Fury and eager as Annette and Bones. Hope is right in front of her, yet she has been betrayed by hope. Desperation fuels her to see this lifelong task through. So she watches closely as her life's purpose is carried out by her worn-out companion, a spider queen, and two strangers.

Full of mana, the dungeon core breaks. Energy, mana, and life force rush out of the core only to be swiftly caught up in Bones' familiar cycling pattern. Conforming to the familiarity, the essences of the dungeon core rage inside Bones. 

Bones holds strong as he cycles the energy, willing it to become one with him. Inside Bones is a war for dominance. Pale mana is aggressive and violent. Dark mana is subtle as it spreads its influence within. Vibrant sporadic yellow mana almost matches the aggressive death mana. A lighter shade of yellow mana, while not as bold as life or death energy, is equally oppressive in its desire for dominion. 

Elemental mana also fights for control within Bones while holding true to their nature. Water is calm and powerful, fire is consuming, earth is steadfast, while air wisps in and out of the fight. Dominating all mana and Bones is the overly abundant shadow mana. It stays within the background of the chaos cycling through Bones. Its soft presence ever so lightly becomes thicker and thicker. 

Aggressive, passive, and wild energies conform to shadow's enticing allure, which continues to clash with Bones over dominion. Bones maintains expert control over his cycling, wrangling the fantastic powers to his will. However, before the energies settle, they burst out of Bones coalescing, once again, into a dungeon core.

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