Chapter 4 – Missing Members and A Yacht

They regrouped in front of the remains of the Dreagan floating in the waves. They looked like filleted pieces of a whale.

“Princess! How did you do that!” Fominel asked, his eyes still wide.

“It’s just something I can do now,” Darya said with a smile. She wasn’t about to explain it in any amount of detail.

Seris was gazing at her with wide eyes, mumbling words quietly to herself. “…I’m not seeing this new spell or skill that you’re using, princess?” she asked curiously.

She had used the Party screen to inspect Darya.

“Let’s just say dying has its benefits. I don’t recommend trying it, though. Why don’t we get going?”

Darya started walking in the direction that they were heading. Fominel and Seris joined on either side again.

“That’s the fastest we ever defeated any Dreagan, princess!” Fominel said. “Whatever it is that you did, I hope it makes you much harder to kill again!”

“By the light! I always knew you were blessed by the Gods!” Seris said eagerly. “A prophet! a miracle! She’s the chosen one!”

“Don’t get carried away now!” Darya laughed. She had impressed the pretty elf a bit too hard.

That’s a good start, though. Maybe I should lean into it.

They walked along the beach in the direction of the campsite where Darya could finally be healed. Seris was utterly convinced that her princess was the second coming of the messiah.

“I’m not that religious, Seris!” Darya said, amused by how enthusiastic the pretty elf was about this topic.

“Eh?! But we’re both Dovarists!” Seris said. “Did you forget that as well?!”

“I was?” Darya asked, trying to remember the pantheon of Vainfall.

There were several entities categorized as Gods. She remembered four of them having lore and gameplay importance in version six. Aramiel of Wings, Sevarin The Lightbearer, Eternal Demoness, and the Saint of Paths.

Dovarism was built around the Lightbearer. She couldn’t remember the exact details now, but she knew she wasn’t a fan. It was loosely inspired by the Abrahamic religions that she was familiar with in real life, and she didn’t need that in her escapist fantasy.

She was more into the edgy red and black color palette of the Eternal Demoness in her Archdemon solo run.

So many cool banners and leather outfits and armor kits!

Seris hurriedly dug into the satchel on her waist and pulled out a bunch of silver trinkets. Looking closely, it was a pair of round glasses, a thin silver necklace with a long rod for a pendant, and similar rod-shaped earrings.

Seris separated the pair of glasses from the jewelry. “I almost forgot to hand these back! I stripped you down before using the resurrection stone. These are your Dovarist jewels,” she said, presenting them with both hands.

Darya looked at them with interest.

[Inspect]

Item: Light Keys of Dovar
Category: Jewelry
Weight: 0.05 lbs
Worth: 190 Gold
Effects: +20 RES
Grants passive immunity to blinding and blesses the wearer with darkvision.

“Oh, these are useful! Keep them with you for now, my pockets are full of blood,” Darya said with a smile.

“You don’t remember them at all?” Seris asked. “You never took this necklace off. You used to wear it to sleep!”

That rod’s the size of a nail. Was I a Dovarist fanatic?

“I still don’t remember, but good to know,” Darya said as she turned to Fominel. “What are you, Fominel? You’re a Dovarist as well?”

“I follow the Rule of Sands, princess. I come from a long line of warriors who never worshiped any Gods. Not out of disrespect, of course. It was never our way to pray.”

Darya vaguely remembered what he was talking about. Fominel was a follower of a warrior doctrine. In that way of life, the doctrine was as good as God. It was a crucial part of survival in a harsh environment.

Karossa was a dry, arid island, if she remembered right. It all made sense now. He had become a palace guard to the princess despite being an atheist clansman. This meant his way of life had no problems coexisting with the Dovarists.

She was curious about the missing party members now that she had gotten to know these two. Emil and Rossarie were out of range, whatever that meant. Earlier, Seris had told her that Emil and Fominel had worked together to break the sphere that swallowed her.

“What happened to our other party members? Do you have any idea?” she asked, looking at them both in turn. Seris’s elf ears drooped at the question.

“Rossarie was keeping Sarka preoccupied while Emil was helping me crack the sphere,” Fominel said, looking ahead. “Her arm got burned, and Emil rejoined the fight. I didn’t see what happened next, only Seris did.”

“Sarka warped away,” Seris said. “Took that whole chunk of the island with him. I blinked once, and they were gone.”

A large-scale porting spell? makes sense for an Archmage supreme. Doesn’t make sense as a tactical decision mid-fight.

“Hm…?” Darya hummed, trying to dissect why someone would do such a thing. According to Seris, the Shadows didn’t have their own will. From the perspective of the Dreagans, their goal should be to weaken individuals with Shadows to make it easier to swallow them.

Sarka had destroyed her first because she was the most powerful one in the party. The sphere had swallowed her afterwards, and she had died. Warping away after defeating her seemed wrong even at a glance.

Why did he leave? Was it his idea, or did I do something to him during my fight?

She had to check the activity logs to find that out.

[Activity Log]

The screen that came up had a long list of everything that had happened so far. She could scroll back endlessly, and annoyingly, that was the only thing that she could do. There were no convenient features like sorting by anything or searching for anything. It was just a giant list and a scrollbar.

Luckily, she didn’t have to scroll that far down to read the things that happened before she woke up. She couldn’t tell where the Sarka fight began, but there were hundreds of items. A repeating name of a spell caught her eye.

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Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

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Action: Used spell [Pillars of Erisoth]
Result: target lost.

Action: Used spell [Pillars of Erisoth]
Result: target out of activation range.

Action: Used spell [Pillars of Erisoth]
Result: target successfully restrained.

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That must be a spell that I have. I only checked the attack ones.

She brought up the specific spell.

Spell: Pillars of Erisoth
Grade: 114
Rarity: Mythic
Mana: 829M
Axes: Ae(364) Un(465)
Shaper: Circle
Duration: 124s
Status Effects: Restrain, Slow
Summon nine pillars of Erisoth to bind a target at the center.

It was a neutral spell with no attack or defense properties. Judging by the grade and the mana cost, it was one of the best spells in her arsenal.

It had failed two times, which amounted to more than 1,600 MP when her total mana capacity was seven thousand. Clearly, this spell was important to restrain Sarka.

The area teleportation made some sense now, whether that decision was sound or not. Sarka had resorted to taking the pillars, the ground, and their party members with him.

“They could still be alive,” Darya said, breaking the silence. “Any idea where he warped off to?”