The Grand Weave

It took some more time for Áine to finish healing the wound on my shoulder. Regrowing missing flesh was hard and very mana intensive.

During that time, while I lay in the blood of my fallen enemies, the woman kept crying. At first, it was pitiable, but now it was actually sad. Neither Sereza nor I knew what to do, so it was easier to pretend she didn't exist.

I tried to send Magnus over, but he protested and wanted to sleep on my chest. He kept trying to take a nap, and I was beginning to get concerned, but after diving through his memories and thoughts, I was ready to throttle him.

Apparently, the sleepy cub was perfectly fine, and he only wanted to nap rather than needing it.

Instead of dealing with that, I closed my eyes and dived deeper into his memories. I wanted to know how he got farther away since he wasn't grabbed by a tentacle.

It turns out he simply appeared closer than I did. His skill activated partially when he ran through the portal, so he resisted its effect to control where he was placed. Somehow, that meant he was transported only a couple of meters away from the monster.

"Hey, Magnus. Why did you run in? That was dangerous."

Magnus lifted his head and placed a paw on my own. Rather than speak, he focused and sent over his memories.

Anger, hurt. Too much mana, everywhere. Stomach twists, teeth vibrate. Master is hurt; need to stop it. DANGER, protect! Stop the attack!

Each snippet of thought threatened to overwhelm my mind, and it took a minute to regain focus. They weren't so much thoughts but rather quick snapshots of an emotion he felt.

The mana affected him differently. His skill forcefully filtered what he sensed and put it in context to what he could absorb. And the sheer amount of spatial mana radiating out of the pocket realm was enough to cause his entire body discomfort.

And then, when the mana started to ramp up, he could feel my pain bleed through the connection, mixing with his to cause more agitation. Somehow, he could sense something was coming, something not aimed at him; his skill told him so.

The rest was a blur as passing through the portal was hard to understand through the memories. Magnus himself didn't know what happened, just that he absorbed some mana and somehow teleported into the dimensional space.

Next, Magnus sent over memories of how he saw the monster and the giant tentacle extending from afar, reaching through the air to pull Sereza and me in.

The funniest thing to watch was how he was launched by the first monster's attack, only to absorb some of the kinetic damage. When he landed on the second monster, he combined the damage from the impact and discharged it through his claws.

Pena was lucky to be angled in the opposite direction of Magnus' attack. The monster that held her chains practically exploded in gore.

My attack was brutal, but Magnus' attack was like five super punches to the Monster's face. Each hit sliced flesh and then exploded with a kinetic energy that expanded inside the wounds.

To make it worse, a part of the attack pulled and twisted inward, causing further separation before the damage resulted in a blown-off head.

After Magnus finished, not even a skull remained.

His attacks blew apart even the chunks along with bone, liberally coating the ground in black tar.

I opened my eyes and smiled at the cub resting his head on my chest. His sleepiness was easy to understand. The amount of energy he released was a lot. Not only did he take in the kinetic energy, but he also discharged the small amount of spatial energy that was absorbed when he entered the space.

"You were amazing, Magnus. Good job, buddy." I whispered.

He let out a soft purr and nuzzled his head deeper. It was with some reluctance that I scooped him up and stood. Áine's healing was as thorough as always, and my bones felt good as new.

"You too, Áine. Thank you."

She booped my nose and settled on my shoulder, opposite from Zharia.

Walking to where Sereza was standing guard, I approached. She had her daggers out, casually spinning as the felkin looked anywhere other than where Pena was sobbing.

As I neared, she resheathed her blades and uncrossed her arms. "Unfair skill. Nobody recovers that easily at our tier." She shook her head while staring at my exposed shoulder. "Do you need food?"

"Nah, I'm good," I said. Frowning, I glared at my lack of armour covering. "Áine's healing doesn't use the body's resources. Her skill supplies it. I think the mana is converted into nutrients as it enters your body. Not entirely sure, but that's my best guess."

"However it works, it's unfair. It's like having a free health potion with no side effects whenever you want."

I shrugged and pointed to the corpse. "I want to, you know what, but honestly, my mana is too low. And I don't want to risk it getting even lower now that we're here."

We both looked up at the sky that was not a sky. It was a ceiling made of white flesh, the same as the tentacle that grabbed us. Every forty seconds, it'd flex and wobble.

The sight was disgusting, and most people would have been revulsed by such a thing. But I was worried more by the fact that it looked like the tentacle flesh. The implications of what that meant were not lost on me. And judging by Sereza's face, it was not lost on her either.

"Alright, so how are we doing this? We weren't even supposed to be in here, but now that we are, we might as well do something about it."

"Agreed," I said. I slid my finger over to where Pena was sitting and shrugged. "Do we want to head where they are keeping the prisoners, or do we head to where they are sacrificing them?"

She stopped and frowned. Then her eyes widened, and she gritted her teeth. " Fuck."

"What? What's wrong?"

"If she was being transported as the next sacrifice, does that mean they are expecting her? Because if they do it like clockwork and can communicate, it'll be a major problem if she doesn't show up."

I froze and stared at the monster corpse before my eyes slid over to Pena, who lay collapsed on the ground. "Fuck."

I'm really hating these rifts.

Would it have been so bad to survive some mountain wilderness camping for a month? I'd have fought off some sea bears. Maybe deal with a week of nonstop rain. But no, the rift had to be filled with a people-sacrificing cult.

"Well, we need to hurry then. They could already know we are here."

Sereza nodded and then walked over to Pena. "Hey, get up. I'm sorry everything sucks, but we gotta go."

Pena looked up with a tear-stained face, her eyes bloodshot and her nose red. It was not a good look, but sadly, there was no time to be sensitive. We couldn't afford it.

"Wh-where, what... what do you need?" Pena asked shakily.

Sereza looked back and raised an eyebrow. I sighed and looked to where Pena had pointed before breaking down. The smartest move would be to get out of here as quickly as possible, but that would be abandoning everyone here.

And my idiotic self had already committed to trying to save people. My intuition practically screamed at me that I should.

Clicking my tongue, I let out a long sigh and raised my head. I stared at Pena and stood up straight. "How many people were alive before you left? And describe the place you were being held at."

Tears started to well in her eyes, but she punched the ground and shook her head. "Fine. Fine. There were, uh, twenty-seven adults and thirteen kids. They'd take a person every half hour and a child every two."

I blinked at the numbers. It was the third day, and if they had been making sacrifices nonstop, that meant a lot of people were long gone.

"Continue, please," I asked.

She trembled but got her shaking under control. "There is a camp. They throw people into a large circle enchanted with a barrier. They keep the kids separated in a different smaller circle." She paused, seemingly counting something in her head before continuing. "There are these... uh, tentacle piles, really tall, almost as big as a building, two of them. They stand guard while a bunch of robed people in tattered clothes come in and out. Probably nine of them.

And creatures like the thing your spirit killed and the one over there. Maybe six of them in total running around. One to escort the sacrifice while the others do... something. I'm not really sure, sorry."

"Don't worry, that's plenty of information."

"Oh, good. Uhm, I'll let you two plan."

Pena looked away, stood up to move but froze, and quickly glanced at Sereza in fear. Sereza sighed and nodded slowly, and Pena turned around and moved a couple of meters away."

I turned to Sereza. "That's a lot of people. Fuck, that's going to be a problem."

"Yeah, that's a lot of kids..."

I gave her a look, and she frowned. "What?"

"They're only rift-born, remember?" I asked, my tone a parody of hers.

She hip-checked me, and I nearly lost my balance. "Oh, shut it. Didn't you show that boy your drawing journal or something? Don't pretend you don't care. We both know what they are. It doesn't make it easier to accept."

I raised my hands. "Fine, fine. So, plan then? We can go to the camp. Magnus could probably disrupt the containment circle."

"Can we fight off the guards? It sounds like they have two of those tentacle things we fought."

"Perhaps, do you think there is a chance more adventurers are in the circle? Together, we could fight them off."

"What then? Rush to the center and fight off the rest of the cultists? Try to head for the exit. Because you didn't see it, but there's no portal where we came from. I checked."

I stopped and glanced in the direction where the tentacle had dragged me. The appendage was long gone, retreated to where it came. Not that I knew where that was.

"Nothing? Magnus did mention the portal tried to make him teleport somewhere random, so there probably is one, just not in that direction."

She shrugged. "Doesn't help us then. Either way, we don't know how many monsters this place is hiding. It could be an entire army for all we know."

"Aaarrrgghh! This is stupid."

Zharia pecked my ear. "It's okay, Master. We'll figure it out."

"Thanks."

Sereza had an easy smile on her face. "And I thought my sins were problematic. Good to know there's something worse."

"I wasn't, ugh, whatever. It doesn't matter." I sent Zharia over to get Pena's attention. When she returned with the woman in tow, I waited until she was close enough to hear without me raising my voice. "Were there other adventurers in the circle before you left?"

"Well, I didn't pay too much attention to people. Was kinda busy being scared. But I saw a couple. Maybe."

"Describe them?"

"Well, there was a beastkin, Big, blue scales, lizard-based with a finned tail. He was talking with an elven woman and another beastkin, smaller and also had blue scales. I don't know how to describe it, but they looked different, less scared somehow."

This time, I grinned.

"Why the smile? Do you know them?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't know them at all."

"Then why are you showing your fangs?"

"I don't know them personally. But, the big beastkin owes me a favour."

"And that's a reason to smile because...?"

"Do you think saving his life would make him owe me another one?"

She chuckled. "Yeah, I'd think so. Be a little rude if he didn't."

I chuckled again while poor Pena stared at us like we were insane. And maybe she was right to do so. For some reason, I found that fact funny, and it helped shake off some of the stress of the situation.

Still, I stopped smiling and breathed in deeply. It was time to plan a rescue mission.

You better live up to the hype, Groxl. We could use the help.