Lucian returned with Melina to the place where the Small Erdtree had been summoned.
All of the Shamans rescued from the prison had now been gathered there.
They huddled close to one another, though the masses of fused flesh covering their bodies prevented them from truly embracing.
After so many years in that prison, long forgotten by the world, the only warmth that had sustained them was the faint comfort shared between kin.
And even that had only been enough to keep their minds from collapsing completely.
Looking at the little more than twenty surviving Shamans before him, Lucian let out a sigh.
All of them would need care from here on out. It was going to be a massive undertaking.
He swept his gaze across the group and noticed that every survivor present was female. He had not seen a single male Shaman.
Perhaps the Hornsent believed that only Shaman women could serve as these sacrificial vessels.
Given the way the Hornsent conducted themselves, it seemed entirely possible.
Lucian turned to Melina and asked,
"You checked the whole prison, right? There aren't any left outside?"
Melina nodded.
"I inspected every path."
After hesitating for a moment, she spoke again.
"But the giant jars... even if the chance is small, I still want to keep trying."
"If someone is still trapped inside one, and I fail to find her..."
Seeing the sorrow on Melina's face, Lucian nodded.
"Then I'll go with you."
"We've already found everyone outside, and their condition has stabilized. Now we focus on the jars."
"As long as there's even a sliver of hope, it's worth continuing."
Melina looked toward the countless giant jars throughout the prison and nodded firmly.
The two of them began opening the sealed jars one by one as they moved through the prison.
Because many of the jars were packed with corpses, including the bodies of numerous Shamans, neither Lucian nor Melina wanted to use wide-range attacks to break them open. That might damage the remains inside.
Opening them one at a time was slow work.
Fortunately, they had time.
Lucian pulled Asimi out from within himself to help, then used the Spirit Calling Bell to summon the ashes of Storm Knight Oleg.
With the two of them assisting, their pace increased dramatically.
But the process was far from smooth.
Jar after jar contained nothing but corpses.
Then Melina's cry rang out through the cold, silent prison.
"Lucian!"
"I found one! I found one!"
Lucian replaced the lid on a jar filled with corpses and turned in surprise.
They had really found one?
He hurried over and saw Melina lifting a frail Shaman out of the jar.
Soft golden light shone from Melina's hands as she soothed her kinswoman.
Though incredibly weak, the Shaman was undeniably alive.
Hope rose in Melina's heart.
There really were still living kin trapped inside the jars.
They had been right to keep trying.
If they had given up, these Shamans sealed inside and unable to free themselves, might have been left behind forever.
Lucian looked into the jar that had held her, trying to determine what had allowed her to survive.
Soon, he found it.
There was a crack in the jar.
It was tiny, accompanied by fine fractures, likely caused by some sort of impact long ago.
But that narrow gap had allowed air to pass inside.
Shamans were not ultimate lifeforms that no longer needed to breathe.
Nor were they Golden folk who could not die because of the Erdtree's grace.
Though long-lived, they could still perish from all manner of causes.
Once he identified that small but vital difference, Lucian immediately stirred up a windstorm throughout the prison.
Melina looked toward him and realized he had discovered something. Hope instantly flared in her chest.
As the wind explored every corner of the prison, Lucian soon found many more jars bearing cracks of various sizes.
He immediately rushed to one of them.
When he opened it, there was only a corpse inside, though the body was relatively well preserved.
Lucian was not discouraged.
He moved at once to the next jar.
As the lid, sealed tightly with root resin, was pried open, a weakened Shaman appeared before him.
A smile rose to Lucian's face.
Even if cracked jars could still contain the dead, searching this way clearly offered a far higher success rate.
Melina hurried over and used golden light to calm the newly freed survivor.
Watching Lucian find a method, Melina's eyes widened.
Lucian had no time to explain. Through the spiritual bond connecting them, he relayed the locations of the cracked jars to Asimi and Oleg, sending them into action.
Then the three of them continued opening jars while Melina followed behind, rescuing and soothing every living Shaman they found.
By the end of their efforts, they had saved more than thirty additional Shamans, all in noticeably worse condition.
Together with the twenty or so survivors rescued earlier, the number of living Shamans had now approached sixty.
It sounded like a large number.
But compared to the countless giant jars filling the prison, it only made their scarcity more horrifying.
Once every cracked jar had been opened, the number of unopened jars in the prison had visibly diminished.
After spending a great deal of time, they eventually opened every last jar.
Sadly, no more survivors were found after that.
Lucian looked at the Shamans before him and let out a long breath.
Saving even one more had been worth it.
Now, the survivors before them fell into two groups.
One group had escaped their jars long ago and could still move about the prison.
The other had remained trapped inside until Lucian and the others had rescued them just now.
Though there was a clear difference in their conditions, neither group could be called well.
Next, they would move all of them to the surface.
And then the long process of healing could begin.
—
Lucian and Melina escorted the Shamans back to the church they had used earlier.
When they arrived, the Small Erdtree Melina had left behind was still there.
And the first Shaman they had rescued had already awakened from her sleep.
After waking, she did not lash out blindly as she had in the prison. She simply sat quietly beneath the phantom tree.
Seeing her in that state, Melina finally relaxed.
She had only ever known the Small Erdtree as something that healed wounds.
That it could also soothe the spirit was a blessing beyond expectation.
Earlier, they had worried that after the initial calming effect, the Small Erdtree's power might gradually weaken until it became useless.
The two of them guided all of the Shamans into the church, gathering beneath the headless statue of Queen Marika.
There was little Lucian could do to help with this, so he simply stood nearby and watched as Melina patiently guided them one by one.
Soon, the Shamans filled over half the church, making the space feel crowded.
Torrent trotted over to Lucian and nudged him with his head.
Lucian stroked Torrent's mane, then suddenly remembered something.
He took out a small jar and broke its seal.
Inside was a large quantity of spirit ash he had collected in the Tower Settlement.
He placed several portions of the revered spirit ash in front of Torrent.
Earlier, they had rushed off to rescue the Shamans, so he had not had time to give it to him.
Torrent seemed to like the stuff quite a bit, and it even appeared to strengthen him.
The moment Torrent saw it, his eyes lit up. He eagerly lowered his head and began licking it up.
His movements were quick, and in no time at all he had cleaned everything up.
Seeing Torrent still look unsatisfied afterward, Lucian suddenly felt a little concerned.
Sure, it had strengthening effects, but was this stuff addictive?
In a sense, this might count as the ashes of Hornsent ancestors.
If it affected Torrent like catnip affected cats, that would be fine.
But what if it was more like... crack?
Lucian shook his head and turned his attention back to the Shamans sitting in circles around the Small Erdtree.
Their current state was decent enough.
Their minds were relatively stable.
Still, Lucian decided to set up some protective measures.
Soon, he used gravity magic to raise a wall around the church grounds.
If possible, he would have preferred to create something like a padded psychiatric ward.
Soft walls on every side, no sharp objects, no danger of patients harming themselves during episodes.
Unfortunately, conditions here did not allow for that.
For now, simply preventing them from wandering off would do.
The rest was up to Melina.
Lucian looked toward her as she moved among the survivors, sensing each one's condition, then asked.
"Melina, I'm heading back to the Lands Between for a bit."
"Do you want to come back for now?"
Melina shook her head.
"I'll stay here."
"They need someone to care for them, and I can help."
Lucian received the answer he had expected and was not surprised.
"Then is there anything you want me to bring back?"
Melina lowered her head and thought for a moment, troubled.
These kinswomen were not simply injured.
Their condition was something unheard of.
Bodies completely fused with the flesh of other races...
Perhaps she had once known something that could help, but with her incomplete memories, she knew nothing now.
In short, she had no idea how to heal their bodies.
And beyond that, their minds were another major problem.
Their mental states were deeply unstable. Every one of them stood on the edge of total collapse, barely retaining a fragment of reason.
Even with treatment, communication might remain impossible for a long time.
"Mm... I don't know either."
"If you think of anything that might help, bring it."
Lucian nodded, then flew upward above the church.
There were several strange creatures living nearby.
Their strength likely posed no threat to Melina.
But if she had to care for the Shamans while also dealing with troublesome neighbors, that would be irritating.
Lucian first found a herd of lightning rams wandering near a cliffside.
Those creatures were annoying.
They rammed anything they saw.
Back in the game, that was one thing, it was just a mechanic. Tarnished were hated by man and beast alike.
But long ago, when Lucian had encountered rams on the Weeping Peninsula, he realized they genuinely just liked ramming whatever moved.
After watching from the air, however, he saw their territory was far from the church.
They were unlikely to cause trouble there.
So he decided to leave them alone.
Turning in another direction, he spotted a ruined village in the distance.
There were strange, massive creatures moving there.
He had noticed them earlier while flying past.
Their appearance was certainly...
Lucian did not want to be too harsh, but they looked even rougher than demi-humans and Misbegotten.
Huge bodies topped by oddly undersized heads.
Facial features twisted together.
Massive buck teeth.
All in all... unfortunate-looking.
And their power seemed related to blood.
Even if they had no connection to the Mohgwyn Dynasty, they still triggered Lucian's blood-cult radar.
He shot through the air toward the ruined settlement and soon hovered above it.
The grotesque monsters below quickly noticed him.
They waved their strange clubs, but no matter what they did, they could not reach someone flying overhead.
Lucian silently observed them.
Then he noticed something.
The "clubs" they wielded appeared to be the dried arms of their own kind.
Suddenly, one of the Bloodfiends raised a spear.
As the twin-pronged weapon stabbed upward into the sky, Lucian felt a power he knew all too well spread through the air.
The spear pierced empty space.
At once, torrents of bloodflame rained down and exploded.
Watching the Bloodfiend perform the Bloodboon Ritual, Lucian's gaze sharpened.
The bloodflame itself was no issue.
But from that spear, he sensed a formidable force.
The Bloodfiend below had just completed the ritual when it suddenly realized it had lost control of the sacred spear.
As panic overtook it, a vast river of invisible flesh surged violently out of the tear in space created by the spear.
Only then did the Bloodfiends realize what was happening.
The Formless Mother they worshiped had descended.
The Formless Mother had answered their prayers!
The Bloodfiends roared and shrieked in joy, throwing themselves to the ground in worship.
But this time, the Formless Mother had not come for them.
Her target was clear.
Lucian.
Watching the Invisible Mother seize the chance and lunge toward him, Lucian was genuinely surprised.
He had only wanted to inspect the situation.
He had not expected the Formless Mother to truly be tied to these creatures, or to empower them with the Bloodboon Ritual.
And her reaction had been so swift, so forceful...
She could even influence the Land of Shadow?
Lucian drew forth the Great Rune within him that carried immense solar power.
A blazing sun rose high in the sky and unleashed destructive fire.
The sacred spear wielded by the Bloodfiends was far too weak.
It could not compare to Mohg's own Mohgwyn Sacred Spear.
Unable to bear greater power, cracks quickly spread across it.
The Formless Mother's flesh was instantly burned away by the solar flames, forced back to the spear's tip.
Then the sunfire descended fully onto the weapon itself.
The next moment, the sacred spear could endure no more and shattered apart.
The Bloodfiends had only just begun reeling in shock at the retreat of their goddess—
when the blazing fire consumed them as well.