Mantle of the Gods [LitRPG / Slow Burn / FTB Harem]

The ice cream was the best I'd ever had.

Granted, the pool it had to compete against was only the cafe back at the Cathedral, but still. The chocolate cone I'd just finished tasted like there was no possible way to make it any better.

Zel had been silent for the rest of the trip and somehow managed to steal shotgun from Aelin while Gesai drove us home.

Aelin gave me the Freeze and Air Bullet skills, while Ether got a skill called Pull the Room. The description said it would taunt everything in the immediate vicinity and it cost twenty mana to cast. With that mana hungry of a skill, we were going to have to be careful when we killed the Dispatcher Dungeon Bosses.

As soon as we got back, Zel took the chocolate cone and ran inside past Oz and Ren, who came out to meet us.

"What's up with her?" Oz took a vanilla cone and handed the berry one to Ren.

"She's hiding something." Fray summarized.

Oz looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

I shrugged. "No idea. She offered to do anything and Ether called her bluff."

"I'll take those to Shelly and Rix." Jen reached for the last two cones. Rix had wanted nut and Shelly chose vanilla.

"You can take Shelly his, but I have a feeling Rix will come down herself." I looked up at the third floor where the door to the balcony of Rix's room was open. "RIX WE'RE HERE WITH YOUR ICE CREAM!"

I had expected her to walk out on the balcony and jump down. It was only twenty feet and I'd seen her fall more just fine. But there was nothing.

Except a woman's scream.

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Gesai shot into the house like she was on fire, which I think she was a little, since I knew she could coat one of her swords in flames.

Oz was right behind her, with me doing something we had been told never to do.

"DASH!"

I sped up, clearing a whole flight of stairs in two steps. As the temporary boost wore off, Oz appeared beside me, then we both Dashed again.

Gesai had put away her sword and was standing over the crying strawberry blonde. Zel was in the middle of the floor of Astrid's room, wailing like someone had died.

"What's going on?" Oz had her hand axes in both her hands.

"She won't stop this…" Gesai shook her head as Zel wailed again. "Screaming…" The teacher grabbed the younger woman by her shirt and pulled her up.

Zel's feet refused to stand, so Gesai held her in the air. Given how high Gesai's Power was, I knew that holding her like this would be no problem for the teacher.

"Zel. Stop."

She started to wail again and I stepped forward and put my hand over her mouth. I looked into her red eyes.

"You promised to do ANYTHING." I kept my hand over her mouth. "So I'm telling you to stop screaming and tell us what's going on."

Tears were still streaming down her face and she was sniffling, but the wailing stopped.

I took my hand off of her mouth. When I backed up, I realized that everyone else was in the doorway and Shelly was right behind Oz. He was wearing nothing but his boxers, but he had his shield out and was still on guard even though the rest of us had put away our weapons.

"Good." I nodded to Gesai. "Answer her."

The redhead tried to set Zel down on her feet, but the other woman was still limp.

Gesai growled as she lifted the younger woman back up. "Where is Astrid?"

"She's…" Zel looked down at the floor as the tears started flowing again.

"Hey!" I snapped my fingers. "We can't do anything if we don't know what's going on!"

"I-I-I told Astrid that you weren't going to pick me…" Zel fought back tears as she clutched the red mask close to her heart. "She said she was going to fix it so you'd have to take me…" Her voice trailed off.

"What is she doing? Hey!" Gesai shook her a little. "Come back. What is she doing?"

"She said that if things ever got too bad that she was going to let people know…" Zel squeezed her eyes tight as gentle sobs began to escape. It took her a few moments to ride out the wave. She looked over at me. "Crimson went to the Pits…" She brought the red mask up to her face. "This is her way of saying goodbye."