The Dungeon's Worst Little Mistake

On the way down from the central wall, Catherine can't help but to look out to the outside of the city. Peeking just over Silest's outer walls, she can see where the dying and withered fields, killed off by the spreading Death mana spilling out from the Dungeon, comes to a sudden stop. Like a ring of life around the city that even extends into the ocean, the Church of the Goddess' own forces have joined those of Sil, their Paladins and War Priests erecting a barrier of holy light to keep the evil contained.

Beyond the barrier the grey-black clouds do not spread. There is sunlight and warmth and clean air. Beyond the barrier is green grass and field of flowing golden wheat. There is color and the Goddess' love.

Inside, there is only the inevitable. Outside, there are soldiers waiting to cut down any who attempt to flee into the light. Never before has the Goddess's love felt so cold and distant than now, Catherine feels.

Looking away from the light of outside world, Catherine continues to follow Alaxander down the wall and into the dying city. Here, trash and corpses mingle and mix in the streets like lovers and fill alleyways to nearly the point of overflowing. Looking around, one can almost see where and when people had given up on trying to care for the dead. Some lay covered in sheets, still waiting days later to be collected and disposed of. Many others simply lay exposed on the cobblestone, their eyes closed and arms folded over their chest or straight at their sides. An unfortunate many however simply lay where they had passed or where they're corpse had been unceremoniously dragged and deposited among all the garbage.

Walking along the streets and stepping over a limp leg sticking out from a pile of bodies, Catherine doesn't even bother to hold her nose any more. Her sinuses have long since gone numb to the smell of rot and decay over the course of the last week, a fact that leaves still mildly surprised whenever she notices it. Just a week. That's all it took to grow used to something like this…

Be it the resilience of the human mind to endure hardships, or that hers has simply become too broken, Catherine doesn't know.

Their walk through the city can hardly be considered a fun one, unlike when Catherine had first arrived here. The shops she would have visited have been vandalized and looted, their clear glass windows now shattered and broken on the floor with manikins left stripped naked of their clothes and jewelry. In the houses, people warily peek out from their boarded up windows, their eyes watching as Catherine's small party passes by, always watching to see if it will be their house next that gets looted for what little supplies they are no doubt desperately hoarding inside. On one corner, Catherine spots a pair of young children, a boy and his little sister huddled up under a blanket for warmth, the two of them sharing a moldy loaf of bread.

Catherine tries to give them a smile and wave, but they only give her a disinterest glance with dule eyes as she passes. Their gaze return to watching something in the opposite alleyway, past Catherine, so she stops and turns to see what it is they are looking at.

Just a couple of dogs, the mangy looking mutts growling at each other as they pull at the corpse of what used to be a woman and eat her flesh. Her face, unfortunately, is already missing, so even if Catherine wanted to, she doubts that she could ever identify the woman. Chances are though; she was potentially related to the children. Probably their mother or an older sister.

Sharing a silent glance with Alexander, her nods and then moves to scare off the dogs. While he chases them off with kicks from his metal plated boots, Catherine and Zenith head over to the children and help them up. The kids don't even resisting, simply letting the older women handle them as they continue to blanky stare towards the alley and the corpse. Left there long enough, if the dogs or exposure didn't get to them first, Catherine could only imagine what some desperate enough people would do to them.

"Come along, we'll take you to the church where it is safe. Get some proper food and water in you. Do you two have any family? Anyone you know that lives nearby, so we can tell them where you are?"

The kids don't respond, just simply remaining silent as they let Catherine move them around, their dirty little hands never letting each other go as they remain covered in the blanket.

"Okay. You two will be alright. Like I said, let's get you to the church. The nice ladies there will take good care of you. Come on."

With Alexander rejoining them, Catherine leads the kids away, the two of them still staring at the alley the entire time until it is finally out of view.

After some distance, Alaxander leans down and speaks softly to Catherine. "This isn't good. We're seeing more and more dogs turning feral. If it keeps up at this rate, especially with all this Death mana in the air, it won't be long until the things start to mutate into monsters. I give it a few more days to a week, and we're going to have Plague Hounds hunting through the streets. And don't even get me started on the birds…"

Zenith pipes in, "Will we have to issue an extermination mission?"

"Ah, yes. I don't like it, and the people certainly won't either, but we'll need to start killing off all the animals before it becomes too late."

The two continue to talk business as Catherine guides the kids forward, not contributing to the conversation. She doesn't have anything useful to add. She knows that asking if it even matters is pointless. Would they even still be here a week from now? Just a month of having that Necromancer in the Dungeon was enough to bring the city to its knees. Just a week after the ground erupted, it was enough to turn the city into a graveyard full of people barely scraping by. Would they even make it one more week? What about tomorrow? After all, the Necromancer could be doing Goddess knows what down in the Dungeon. How much longer will it be until the earth is suddenly swallowing up Silest beneath Catherine's very feet?

No, I can't be thinking like that. I need to do everything I can so we can survive even just one more day. I can't let go of the hope that someone might come and save us. If we just keep holding on and surviving… At least then, I can say I went out fighting when I join everyone else up in Heaven…

Eventually, they come to the church and are greeted by the usual sight. People camping out on the sidewalks or in the garden, living out of shabby tents as they try to etch out a life around the one safe place in the city, having chosen to abandon their own homes to live here instead. Aside from them, there is the ever present line of people waiting for aid. Fresh water to fill their canteens and rawhides, not molding bread and warm soup to fill their stomachs that have only eaten rotting food for days, and of course the desperate pleas of those seeking healing, be it magical or mundane.

This is the only place now that they can seek these things. Only within the holy safety of the church and protected by the prayers of the servants of the Goddess can they find them. While the rest of the city's fresh water supply has turned bile and poisonous, water mages have gathered to create clean water around the clock. While the all the food in the city, exposed to the Death in the air, has begun to rot and mold, only in the church's sanctified grounds is the bread still white and pure, the soup still warm and full of life giving energy. Only in the church, where the air is still breathable and clean, the grass is still green and the trees alive with leaves, can one seek to be healed…

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Catherine knows that she should be helping. That she should be in there, using her Goddess granted gift to help heal people and make water for them to quench their thirst. But she just can't. Not anymore…

Holding the kids close to her side, she lowers her head in disgrace and keeps walking forward, her eyes firmly on the ground and away from the needy waiting in line. She wants to get away from here already. She doesn't deserve to be here. Just let her leave already and go on her suicide mission so she can actually do something or die trying.

Nearly to the door, Catherine is forced to come to a stop as a pair of gleaming steel boots is suddenly blocking her path.

"Ah, welcome back miss Raingarden. I see that you brought back some stray sheep on the way home."

Catherine returns her gaze back up from the floor, and further still, to find a man nearly seven and a half feet tall and dressed head to boot in thick, polished plate armor, a holy simply set in gold sitting squarely in his chest and on his pauldrons for all to see. A holy Paladin of the church. The swords and shields of the Goddess is living flesh and metal. Living testaments to and the physical embodiments of her love and power.

Startled, Catherine can only gape like a goldfish for a second as she backs up and tries to find her word. No amount of noble training can prepare someone to walk face first into a Paladin and not be startled. But it certainly helps quiet a lot for the recovery.

Where others would have been left floundering for nearly a minute trying to find their words, Catherine only needs a second and a quick cough as an excuse to cover her open mouth.

"Ahha… My apologies, Sir August, I wasn't looking where I was going." She says with a quick curtsy, though she isn't currently wearing a skirt. With a quick glance toward the two children at her side, Catherine continues, "And yes, we found these two huddled up outside. I hoped we can get them some fresh food and water, and a safe place to rest the night."

Sir August smiles warmly as he looks down at the two children, his sheer size and presence seemingly being enough to finally knock the two out of their stupor as they stare up at the man with mouths and eyes wide open.

"Certainly." He waves to a nun that is following his group and gestures her towards the children. "Please take them inside and see to it that they are cared for. Is their still a bed available?"

The nun think, "Mmm… If we move some people around, we should be able to open up one. They are small enough to share. Yes Sir Paladin, right away. Come along children, can you tell me your names?"

The nun takes the kids and guides them away, the two still staring over their shoulders as they walk away.

Sir August, leader of, and one of the seven Paladins sent from the Order of the Blue Rosary, returns his smile back to Catherine after watching the kids disappear into the church with the nun.

"Now then, I understand that you are the one who volunteered for this mission. Before we start, I must ask if you would like to reconsider. This will be quite dangerous and it can't be denied that your aid may be better served her, helping the needy."

The immediate gut reaction is to just nod and do as he says. His tightly controlled, but clearly immense power and presence makes it hard to disagree with him. Even with all his power being held close to his body and politely contained, Catherine, as a mage, can still plainly feel just how far he out classed her. Her own Water Core might as well be a rock on the side of the road in comparison to the radiation star of Light burning within him. Obeying is simply natural when faced with someone so powerful. And worst of all his words aren't even an order, but merely a helpful suggestion that Catherine can tell comes from the heart. And yet still, just with that she is almost compelled to obey.

But she can't back down from this. She can't go back to healing. She needs to do this; else she might as well just curl up in a corner somewhere out of sight and die.

Biting her lips enough for it to hurt, Catherine grits her teeth and pushes through the compulsion. She needs this!

"I thank you for your kind consideration, Sir August, but I wish to remain on this mission."

His smile drops just a little, but then he nods as he looks down at her.

"Very well, I will not contest your decision, miss Raingarden. And I thank you for your aid."

He turns to look to the young man standing behind him, dressed in the same armor and almost as tall at a still astonishing seven feet, gesturing to him to step forward.

"This is Arthor, my apprentice. He will be joining you on this mission to help ensure its success."

Catherine bows to the young man and he returns the gesture with a hand over his heart.

"Greetings, Sir Arthor. I am glad to have you."

"Likewise, miss Raingarden."

Compared to his master, Arthor doesn't feel anywhere near as powerful. Still strong enough to make Catherine look like fledgling mage fresh off her mother's tit, but at the very least his presence isn't so strong that she can't even look at him without wanting to drop to her knees and bend her head. A relief, most certainly.

Sir August continues after their greeting is concluded.

"It shames me that I couldn't send more of my Paladins to aid you on this quest, or that we can't simply do it ourselves, but I need everyone here to help maintain order and protect the church. With how much the ambient Death mana is growing by the day, it won't be long until only myself and a few others will be able to maintain the sanctified field around the church. Arthor, you are not to fail this mission. Succeed and return alive, no matter what. Am I understood, boy?"

Arthor bows deeply and thumps his chest, metal gauntlet ringing against thick cuirass like a church bell.

"Understood, Master. I will return successful. By the Goddess' light."

"By her love." Sir August nods and sets a hand on Arthor's pauldron.

It's a sad thing to realize, but when Sir August says that he needs to protect the church, Catherine understands that he isn't referring to protecting it from monsters or the Undead. While that certainly still stands as being true. The actual threat is the people of the city themselves. Without the Paladins here, even the city guard would eventually not be enough to persuade the people away from assaulting the church in a desperate attempt to get what they need to survive.

The church is only one building. Those inside can only help so many people at once. And they certainly can't help everyone in the city. Sacrifices will have to be made…

Turning back to Catherine, Sir August's smile remains on his face, his white teeth practically shining with holy light.

"Now then, miss Catherine, I am to give this to you."

From a pouch on his belt, he pulls out a glowing blue crystal that feels as if it has been filled with holy power. The crystal is quite large, large enough that Catherine has to use two hands to accept it, but within Sir August's hand, it seems small.

"Thank you." Catherine says with a bow as she holds the crystal to her chest.

"Now then, your mission is this. Bring this crystal to the water treatment facility and replace the dead core with it. This water crystal is one, personally blessed by the Goddess herself. With it, we will be able to purify the city's freshwater supply and buy ourselves some breathing room and hopefully save some lives in the process. Be very careful with it, we only have the one. Do you understand why it is that you are needed for this mission, and why I don't simply send Arthor by himself?"

Catherine nods with a serious expression. "Yes, Sir August. After the core is replaced, a Water Mage is needed to reactivate the facility."

"Correct. You aren't going out there to fight and die a warrior's death. You need to survive at all costs and get the mission done, even if it means sacrificing everyone else to get you done. Do you understand? Can you do this?"

He lightens his control over his own mana, letting his presence spill out just a little to help impart how serious he is. The ever present smile on his face even drops away as Catherine is suddenly forced to stand under the pressure of a living star, his question resting heavily on her spine.

Through gritted teeth she forces her mind to stop screaming that she should just give up and run away. With the crystal tightly held to her chest and one hand going down to just as tightly grip the handle of her mace, she looks up through the pressure and nods, fighting to just get one word out.

"Yes!"

His smile returns and the suffocating pressure disappears like it was never even there.

"Good. Now, let's go meet the rest of your team and get you sent on your way."