"Rufi! You can come out now." A silver and black cat-like creature flew out from behind the Goddess' couch, fluttering down onto the ground in front of me with a chirp. She had black bat-wings and a small snake curling up for its tail, and her face seemed to resemble something between a lion and a leopard. She looked up at me with big, baby-blue eyes, and chirped again as if in greeting before she flew up and began snuggling all around my neck, rubbing herself against the sharp bones of my head and shoulders.
"Heey," I said with a laugh, putting up my hand to scritch her available side. She began purring as a result, and stretched herself on my shoulder, letting her two front paws drape down my chest.
"Oh good, she seems to like you, though I do wonder how she'll respond when you're less bony."
"Well then I'll just have to scritch you all the harder," I said more to Rufi than to the goddess as I rubbed my face in her side. Rufi mewled and rolled over exposing her belly.
"I've capped her power to match yours, so that she won't outpace you too much in battle. Of course, in emergencies she possesses the power to break through that restriction, though that doesn't mean she will always do so for your sake. Despite her desire for affection, she is quite an intelligent creature. She won't blindly serve you, especially if you're not treating her well."
"So I just have to give you lots of love, huh?" I said giving Rufi a facial massage. Rufi mewled again and bit playfully at my fingers.
The goddess looked at us both amused. "It seems I have become irrelevant."
I jolted at the words and quickly kneeled. "Of course not, goddess, my greatest thanks for your gifting me Rufi."
The goddess' face grew serious. "I may not be the most heavy-handed of masters, but I pray you don't forget who you serve. I will not tolerate disloyalty."
"O-of course," I bowed my head. I swallowed. What…did I get myself into? The pressure of the goddess' gaze relented, and I lifted my head again. She looked suddenly thoughtful and considerate.
"The gods brought you and your friends here as playthings in their game of war. They don't care about the Demon King just like you don't care about the bugs crawling underneath your feet. They just want a nice story. I suppose I am not much different, only that I am not one of the ones who brought you to this world. You all might be like puppets to us, but unlike my brethren I prefer my puppets aware of their strings. Grant me your reverence and your loyalty, and you shall live as you please, reviving when you die, and receiving gifts according to your worth. Or would you rather me return you directly to the surface, without Rufi and without the ability to come back to life?"
I took a breath. Of course I was uncomfortable with the idea of unconditionally serving a strange goddess I had only just met, but it was a fact that she had saved my life, and she wasn't exactly asking for all that much in return. I hated the idea of being a puppet dancing for her amusement, but she was right that my friends weren't any different. From the moment we had arrived in this world, we had been on the divine stage without much of our own say in the matter. "Find your own reason for living," her own words from what she expected of me. I suppose if I must be a plaything for the gods, this one doesn't seem so bad…
She smiled. "Good, then it's settled then."
I shivered. She heard my thoughts.
"Now," she continued, "Good luck on the trials, little one." She waved her hand, and before I could say anything in return the void world faded around me, and I found myself back in the stone corridor facing the statue of the goddess with a little snugly warmth at my ankles.
"It should have been around here," Amelia crouched down close to the ground examining the surrounding cave, "But I don't see any traces of anything."
"It's like I said," Kasha pouted, her arms crossed. "The dungeon absorbs the dead, there's no chance we'll find him here, we might as well get on with our leveling."
"Now, now Kasha," Aaron patted her on the shoulder. "We might as well search thoroughly, there's still a chance he managed to survive after all."
Shawn and Will stood at a distance watching them gravely. "It's like he wasn't even their friend," Grace whispered angrily behind them. "It's like they don't even care that he's dead."
"What do you think we should do?" Will turned to her, still whispering.
"I don't care about the numbers, I just don't want to be around jerks like them. This isn't like class where we all just have to get along, we're putting our lives on the line for eachother here."
"Leticia and Almara will come along with you, right?"
"Yeah, probably. We should ask Kelichi along as well, I don't think he gets on that well with the rest of them."
"You're right, Ray was really the closest thing he had to a friend in our class."
"What do you think the chances are he's still around here?" Shawn spoke up, addressing the rest of their party. The Europeans in their class had already split off to form their own party, the majority of the people left had been Americans, who had gathered around Aaron to form the Party of Heroes. But it had left people like Shawn, Will and Grace, who weren't from the US on the outskirts of the group.
"Unfortunately I'd say pretty close to zero," Amelia replied. "The last time we saw him he was already wounded and in the war hound's grasp. If he didn't manage to hide or crawl his way towards the entrance, then he's probably dead."
"Gotcha, well, a few of us are pretty shaken up at losing a classmate, so if it's alright with the rest of you, I think we'll head back and take a little time off."
"Really?" Kasha scoffed. "The loss of poor little Ray Gardner really shook you that much? You scared little aussie?"
"Kasha." Aaron chided. "That's enough." He turned towards Shawn "Of course if you want to head back, that's fine. The rest of us will keep going to continue leveling as we keep an eye out for any signs of Ray."
Grace flicked her eyes to Kelichi and then to Will, before she turned towards Leticia and Almara. Will nodded then went to ask the Nigerian if he wanted to come back with them.