1st Person POV (MC)-Present Time-

  “Tell me, spawn. Are the rebels still alive?” -King-

  The way he spoke is degrading as if those words are disgusting to utter.

  Although they ‘looked’ like humans, I see it in my eyes that they are fiends like Booba.

  (“Ah... I see the difference now.”)

  Booba’s form hidden behind gmour looks real, like the two images in a card where different angles of light show different images.

  Meanwhile, they seemed to be more... ghostly? Incorporeal yeah, that’s the correct term. I can see wisps of darkness occasionally flickering.

  That’s what the missionaries meant by the demon, which has infiltrated through possession.

  “Kekekekekekek... Yes, yes they are in the dungeons rotting for their life. The resentment they built, ahhhhhh how delicious.” -Demon Spawn-

  “Good... We need more for the winter solstice. Those insects dare dey our pns!” -King-

  He spoke with confidence and angering tone as my thoughts went to the st of his words.

  (“Solstice? Huh... I don’t know what they’re pnning to do but it can’t be good!”)

  “Spawn, All for the Grand Pn! Dismissed.” -King-

  “All for the Grand Pn!” -Demon Spawn-

  The rest of the underlings shouted and promptly dispersed, not noticing Siegfried’s in the ceiling, including the possessed king, as the py icon faded.

  Soon after, the king stood from his throne and began to walk albeit in a strange gait as if not used in inhabiting the body towards somewhere.

  (“I’ll follow him. Can you cover me?”) -Siegfried-

  (“Yep, [Extend: Unknowable]”)

  I utter those keywords with an intent and my mind thought of Fragment C as a medium. The game recognizes this and follows suit as Fragment C in the party panel has started casting a {Spell}.

  Although I cannot see it in action, Siegfried confirms that the {Spell} has taken effect as my fragments P.O.V screen starts to be closer towards the walking king.

  Still while stalking... a silly idea comes to my mind as I grin and begin humming a tune. It is familiar if they watch spy movies but since I’m bad at it, I doubt he recognizes the theme.

  (“Hahahahahahah. Name’s Calenus... Siegfried Calenus.”) -Siegfried-

  (“Hehe.”)

  Though... we stopped ughing after the king entered his chamber. With several squelching and sucking noises simir to suction cups in the background, Siegfried entered the king’s room.

  (“Some occult shit here.”) -Siegfried-

  I agree with his comment. In this dark, dingy room enlightened by candlelight. I can see papers & books crumpled and haphazardly id on the rge table.

  There’s a magic circle painted in ‘tomato sauce’ in the centre of the room littered with desiccated corpses of varying humanoids.

  On the king’s bed, lies a single body preserved in pristine condition wearing a beautiful gown as if getting married. It looks so serene compared to the surroundings...

  There are torture devices and tools id about on the side tables each has been stained in crusty brown-red colour. Vials containing some sort of eerie liquid in various sizes are stored on shelves in the back-end corner of the room.

  Like what Siegfried’s said ‘Occult shit going on’.

  Meanwhile, the King sat at the furthest corner of this room facing towards the window overlooking the entire city.

  “Soon.... Soon all of this will be in hell. I’ll offer this entire city’s souls.” -King-

  And like that, his eyes shaded in bck and his posture grew x.

  (What do?”) -Siegfried-

  (“Hmmm...”)

  Looking at the situation, it seems the King is... sleeping. Or rendered unresponsive. I hope that’s the case cause...

  (“Can you let me see the open book over there, lying on the table near the magic circle?”)

  That book is the only one that lies intact, untouched by ‘tomato sauce’. Based on my vision, it shines in eerie dark purple colours.

  (Sure!”) -Siegfried-

  *SCHLUPPPPPPPPP*

  I hear another noise of leather being stretched to its limits as one view of the fragment’s screen gets closer as if being zoomed in.

  Now the contents of the books are clear to me, at first gnce the words are in symbols with hard edges as they slowly rearrange themselves in my view. Into words that I can understand easily...

  ...

  ...

  ...

  (“Ouh... that’s very cliché.”)

  (Wha-What? What did you learn?”) -Siegfried-

  Indulging on that question, I spilled my thoughts...

  (“This book depicts an ancient ritual to merge between Thelea and Hell although not completely combine them rather it merely brings a piece of hell to Thelea.”)

  (“Uh-huh...”) -Siegfried-

  (“To do that there are several requirements to be met. First, it needed a lot of resembnce to the pne of hell. Second, a moment where the barrier between pnes is the thinnest. Third, a whole lot of mana to bore a hole in the barrier. They expined it well, to be honest, I thought it would be convoluted haha!”)

  (“My guess is... they wanted to use the souls of sacrificed humanoids as mana to do so. Then resembnce means that they wanted to replicate hell’s environment which was littered with despair, sorrow, and resentment.”)

  I thought of the king when he spoke about solstices...

  (“Solstice eh? That must be when it will occur. Sieg? Hello?”)

  He’s oddly silent for some reason which made me worried as it quickly washed away as he replies.

  (“Y-yeah?”) -Siegfried-

  (“Haaaaa... You didn’t listen right?”)

  (“Well, I saw an interesting book about demon anatomy on the other table. I can’t help but to be curious about it. Hehe...”) -Siegfried-

  Even without seeing him directly, I can imagine his figure rubbing the back of his head with a cheeky grin ced on his face.

  Nevertheless, I sighed deeply before brushing it off after all he’s interested in the anatomy of creatures to get the hang of his {Trait}.

  An idea comes to my mind... The King’s sleeping / unresponsive anyway!

  (“Hmmmmm... why not steal it then?”)

  (“Oh! Great idea. My ‘eye’ icon is still closed. I’ll steal the other one too for you.”) -Siegfried-

  *SCHLUUUPPP* *SQUELCH*

  He retracted my fragment’s view so it returned to default as I saw a webbed mesh of flesh stretching and dropping like a net in its pce.

  (“Its kinda hard... Ughhhh...”) -Siegfried-

  He groaned not used to maniputing that as he clumsily retracts and drops like cws in arcade machines.

  Until finally...

  *PLOP*

  It sticks to the book and slowly lifts it. Huh... In this scene, I remembered that a spider had this method of capturing their prey or was it a caveworm?

  Nevertheless, the book disappeared from my fragments screen which means Siegfried has taken it into his inventory as he did the same to the other book used for ritual.

  (“Oh yeah Mag, they said about rebels in the dungeon right?”) -Siegfried-

  (“Ah! I guess we’ll rescue them. I can cast [Gate] with widened meta magic and unlock their jail cell.”)

  (“Thanks heaps!”) -Siegfried-

  *SCHLUP* *SQUELCH*

  The fragments’ screen shifts with Siegfried moving towards other pces while I’m alternating between opening the map system and guiding Siegfried on the yout.

  (“Heh...”)

  This quest is a breeze! As Siegfried arrived at a spiral staircase leading down towards the basement or dungeon.

  From the extravagant decorations of the pace, the colour seems to dull into grey bricks ced by dust and spider webs as Siegfried continues downward.

  (“Mag, I’m gonna reform to my usual bod.”) -Siegfried-

  Without even needing to expin further, I know what he’s referring to as I commanded Fragment D to cast [Extend: Seeming]

  [Veil of Obscurity] makes us look like NPCs but a peasant wandering around in the royal pace still causes suspicion so yering it with [Seeming] I made it so that Siegfried looks like one of the noble NPCs we saw.

  (“Thanks.”) -Siegfried-

  (“No worries~”)

  Shortly thereafter, we finally entered the dungeon. It’s dimly lit by nearly dying sconces as I can hear chains rattling in the distance.

  (“Fuck, it smells rank.”) -Siegfried-

  (“Good thing I choose not to share my sense of smell. Hehehe.”)

  (“Fuck you.”) -Siegfried-

  I snickered as Siegfried passed by several guards and they greeted him cordially. Looks like the {Spell} works fine!

  Then...

  *FWP* *TACK*

  “GAAHHHH!” -Rebels-

  It’s like the sound of a whip...

  (“I hear something...”) -Siegfried-

  He ducked to a corner of the walls and discreetly, I heard the same noise of leather ripping apart as one of the fragment’s screens viewed an NPC strapped to a chair.

  Enduring several shes from another NPC dressed in ‘warden’ kind of attire. In this distance though, I can see that NPC is a demon possessing a human.

  (“Sieg, what are you going to do?”)

  He stays silent for a bit in thought before making his moves as I continue to watch. Making sure to remember {Spell} that can aid him if things go awry.

  *SNAP* *FWIP* *RATTLE* *RATTLE*

  He threw something out in the open as it rattled. Maybe a rock?

  “What was that?” -Warden-

  The shing and constant groaning of pain stopped as footsteps began to be heard coming ever closer and closer...

  Until a figure appears looking around but not noticing how close Siegfried is to him. Sieg seems to have pushed himself into the walls.

  After a few seconds had passed though, the warden kept looking around until he scoffed and said...

  “Huh... Must have been the wind.” -Warden-

  As that warden turned around wanting to return to his post.

  “Wha-!!” -Warden-

  A sheet of stretched flesh, muscles, and pulsating veins id out and engulfed the poor warden.

  He struggled in panic as I saw the protrusion from that net of flesh. Before dragging him into Siegfried and out of view from my fragments.

  *CRUNCH* *CRUNCH* *CRUNCH*

  (“Oh... He ate him.”)

  (“Gah... taste horrid. Blehhhhh...”) -Siegfried-

  (“I can imagine. Anyway! Good job.”)

  (“Mag, cancel the [Seeming].”) -Siegfried-

  Sure enough, with an intent in my mind. The [Seeming] buff in Siegfried’s party panel vanishes.

  *SQUELCH* *CRUNCH* *SQUELCH*

  It sounded gory and my fragments' point of view slightly turned shorter. I think he changed form...

  From then on, I can see him moving towards where the warden was as if repcing him and to ‘his’ post. Leading to the figure strapped on a chair.

  A man in rags trained a soldier by his gait even though his body is littered with whip shes. He gritted his mouth in anticipation of Siegfried’s arrival as he said...

  “I... will not tell... you...” -Rebel-

  “What makes you so confident?” -Siegfried-

  Siegfried's voice growls like a predator seizing its prey trying to act intimidating.

  (“Yikes! Personality change~”)

  (“Mag... Can you read his mind?”) -Siegfried-

  (“Ah-Oh!?? Sure, sure, sure... [Detect Thoughts]”)

  (“Never! I’ll never tell them anything! Even if I die.”) -Rebel-

  His thoughts are that of desperation and are littered with those sentences repeatedly.

  I squint and stare towards that person even longer.... with deep intent to know more about this person’s experiences & memories.

  Just like that the magic occurs...

  Scenes entered my mind like a movie, and I knew deep in my heart that this was his memory.

  It tells the story of sudden changes in King’s behaviour and a person he was tasked with protecting or should I say... The Crown Prince.

  If I focus further, I might be able to hear the conversations and lore, but I prefer the abridged version thank you very much.

  The crown prince led the rebellion against the King possessed by demons yet ultimately failed.

  But before he can be captured, these rebels hold the demons back allowing the prince to escape and hide in the urban maze of lowlight.

  This soldier is quite involved as I saw him navigating through the urban maze and entering a hidden passage.

  Leading to a housing interior where the windows are barred up. It is lit with candles and the people there spoke in hushed tones like a code.

  (“I guess the purpose of the warden torturing them is to find information on where the Crown Prince is hiding. I find it very difficult to navigate thankfully since I saw the room I can teleport to it easily.”)

  (“Mag, what did you see...”) -Siegfried-

  (“Their hideout in Lowlight urban area. I can open up a [Gate] there.”)

  (“Good.”) -Siegfried-

  *KRRRRSSSSSSS*

  I hear sounds of paper tearing as Siegfried throws to the side some sort of ‘Skin’. As soon as he did that, the Soldier’s eyes widened with his greeted teeth rexed.

  “I’m an envoy from Saintear, Siegfried Calenus. How many are prisoners here?” -Siegfried-

  He looked in suspicion then Siegfried showed him the emblem of Saintear which I forgot that I too have them.

  It provokes an immediate reaction from this soldier as Siegfried crushes the chains holding him in pce with his bare hands.

  (“[Benedictio]”)

  Focusing my intent to cast that {Spell} uttering the keywords and also wanting to use fragment D as the medium.

  That soldier is engulfed in silver light as his injuries even scars simply vanish.

  “Thanks... We-we never thought there’ll be a rescue after the previous missionaries being executed.” -Rebel-

  “Hurry, gather round the rebels. My colleague will transport all of you to Saintear.” -Siegfried-

  The soldier halted before asking in a bated breath...

  “W-wait, we still have the crown prince to look after! I can show you the way there.” -Rebel-

  “Then, I’ll ask my colleague to transport you to the underground colosseum.” -Siegfried-

  “Yeah, it’s one of the Crown Prince’s ideas to build that. Ah! Let me introduce myself, I’m Drust one of the Crown Prince’s royal guard.” -Rebel-

  (“Oooohhhh, we score a big one. Nice going, Sieg!! If I suddenly teleport them to the hideout they’ll be suspicious of us.”)

  (“Praise me more.”) -Siegfried-

  I can hear and see his cheeky grin even from over here as I sighed. They began to destroy the chains and bend the iron bars as I put up a veil of illusion to hide what they were doing.

  --

  “Ready?” -Siegfried-

  “Ready as we ever be.” -Drust-

  He gave a quick scan to the other rebels, I healed them all, though Fragment C is out of commission as I left it in low MP.

  “Mag, opened up the gate.” -Siegfried-

  (“Yesh... Bosssss.”)

  (“[Widen: Gate]”)

  Using Fragment E as the medium focuses on the walls of the dungeon. The magic is activated once the cast bar is filled rather quickly.

  It started like a single thin line before opening up as if the walls is being tore apart. Creating a tear in space leading to an image of the back rooms of the Colosseum.

  *THUD* *THUD* *THUD*

  Siegfried, rebels, and I hear the footsteps outside as guards wander around. One of them stood very close to the illusion wall...

  “Go! Go! Go!!!” -Siegfried-

  He urged and the rebels entered the tear in space with him following suit as my fragments’ screen are now showing the underground colosseum.

  (“Mission Successful!”) -Siegfried-

  (“Yep, just wait a sec.”)

  Opening my eyes, I see the thick bushes and two fragments rotating ever so slowly around me as I simply whisper the keywords while imagining the pce.

  “[Teleportation]”

  *FWOOOSH*

  This familiar sensation blew my face as my view instantly changed to that of the underground colosseum right near Siegfried.

  “WHOA!!” -Rebels-

  Some look startled and wary about my appearance. Knowing that I took out the very same Saintear emblem as they calmed down.

  “Drust, this is my colleague who healed you all and transported you here. Magie Magia.” -Siegfried-

  “Nice to meet you, we would like to reward you but we need to find the crown prince first.” -Drust-

  We nodded and quickly exited the Colosseum...