Nati

"T-this was not supposed to happen."

With nothing to draw the runes, I created threads from the mana swirling on the balcony, sewing them into the toy. The stream of magicules was chaotic but thick, providing the strength to hold a deity in place. The instructions included more steps, I was still at the beginning, but they fired for some reason. Why and how? I only meant to test the spell, not cast it.

But Fenna's magic stone projected a clear image, and the practice run became the real deal. I knew nothing about the deity living in the Princess' mind, but I only had to trace the seal and the cat doll came to life. The results surprised me. How did it work without the True Name? I didn't even know her regular one.

The plushie jumped off my hands without a warning and emitted a strong aura. It seemed upset, and thanks to my mishap, we faced two deities as if we didn't have enough problems already. One of them was an all-powerful dragon in a human form, defying Cranta for a millennium. He toyed with our group, aiming to destroy us.

But I knew nothing about the other one, only that she was a human in a cat's body. She came from the Cranta Pantheon, which meant she worked with the Inquisitorias. They were Alexandra's enemies, and I sealed her into a plushie without any safety measures. I didn't know what to expect, and the first thing she did was complain.

"I can't believe you let her do that!" The toy yelled, and the buttons sewn as her eyes came to life. The Princess couldn't believe it either.

I never got to ask for her True Name, so early in the preparations. A nasty headache bothered Elizabeth, and I thought I'd leave her time to recover. But the situation got out of hand way before that.

The dungeon made everything more potent involving mana, but to seal a god without even trying? I did not expect that, and unlike the Princess, the goddess wasn't happy about it.

"My thoughts. I can hear them again. Geddu?" She looked at the creature, her eyes widening, and she fell to her knees. I wanted to apologize, but she burst into a cheer, clenching her fists and punching into the air. "Finally! I'm so glad you're out of my head."

"Rude! I helped you all this time." The cat sounded rather judgemental for a stuffed toy, but she made a lot of noise, and it didn't go unnoticed.

The fight in the arena still raged, the Dragon God observing it from the middle in his human form. But with most of the contenders gone, their struggle got quieter. The cat's voice alerted Addas to my mishap, and he turned our way. The buttons met his gaze, and things heated up.

"Oh crap." Ember realized first that something had gone wrong. She planned her first strike for when our plan sprung in motion, but couldn't act immediately. I didn't expect success on the first try either.

The god's attack materialized faster than I could blink. It wasn't fire or a lightning bolt this time, but a strike made of pure mana. A purple beam thicker than my torso raced toward us and time seemed slowing down.

The cat, or Geddu as the Crantan royalty referred to her, flew ahead of us. She floated in the air, blocking the first strike, and I suspected she did something with the flow of time too. She couldn't soak it up or make it disappear but deflected the beam in a wide arch so we remained safe. This shook up the others too, and they picked up the pace.

"Okay, Firestorm it is!" The Fire Witch yelled, and a whirlwind of flames emerged from her staff. She engulfed the sky above the courtyard aiming for the fairies and wiped them out in one fell swoop.

"Next time at least ask if we're ready," Omerta complained, picking up the other plushie. Cath took her sword, though it didn't seem she could deal with a god's power as the balcony crumbled from his attack. Not even deflecting it helped, and we fell into the arena.

Gitaut cast a spell to slow our fall, but now we faced the monsters. The walls disappeared as the Dragon God hovered above, sending another purple beam at us. The cat took the point of our formation and fired too. Her magicules scattered Addas' attack but couldn't reach him.

I feared that my mishap would lead to us fighting two gods at once, but for now, the enemy of our enemy was our friend. I forced myself to move on with the saying echoing in my mind. Things already happened faster than I could react. Omerta stuffed the dragon doll into my palms as if saying we had come too far to turn back.

"Prepare that doll!" The cat also ordered me, sending another blue wave into the air. Addas wiped it off with ease. "I'm not sure how long I can hold him."

The monsters forgot the ritual and faced us as one, but I was confident fighting them without the fairies. Their numbers dwindled, losing all support, but the strongest survived. And I had a different task to deal with.

"Okay, first the threads again." I reminded myself as the battle turned into pure chaos. So far it served us well, the few survivors met my sister and Cath in the first row, and none of them found a way past them. Omerta still squeezed my arm, and it was strange how calm I felt realizing her hand shook. "Let's do this. It's children's play to make that seal."

Someone else in the area made her presence known too. Cath might not have been her fan, but the blue-robed Saipole girl didn't waste time joining the fray. A burst of electricity washed over the beasts' formations as she reached us, wiping them out.

My mistake put everyone on the edge, and I needed to act, which gave me the strength to do so. Time was of the essence and the urgency propelled me forward. My mind reached out toward the tangled mess of mana twirling like a storm in the courtyard.

"I succeeded first without trying, so I can do this." I nodded towards the orc witch, adding. "Give me a minute."

"Make it faster!" The stuffed cat demanded, dueling the god standing in the sky. I knew little about her, but our interests aligned as long as we fought for survival. We had to trust her.

She lacked the confidence though, the first goddess I've met with this problem. There was a clear difference in strength. She destined herself to fail if duels between gods happened the same way wizards fought them. But she didn't exactly give up yet.

"Addas might toy with us, but if he's warmed up I can't hold him back. And neither can you so hurry." She explained, and I felt the pressure too. Even without the fairies messing with our heads, it ramped up with each second, trying to crush us on the ground.

I caught a loose end in the swirling mana strands and began working with it. Like the first time, I pulled together a thick rope's worth in my head. Next was compressing them into a thread that fits through a pinhole.

I imagined the instructions as I worked the needle through the dragon plushie the same way as before. The seal shaped up fast, but the spell didn't go off before I finished the preparations this time.

This was the easy part, now I had to ensure whatever got locked inside stayed there, and couldn't hurt us. Unlike the deity I freed from Elizabeth's brain, this one was hostile from the get-go, and a seal wouldn't stop him.

"I'll help too." The Princess offered right when I thought about her, dropping to the ground by my side. She recovered from her headache and was eager to fight. "I can tell you his True Name. Thanks to you my mind is clearer than ever in the last month."

She winked, her purple locks framing her face, and she closed her eyes. I envied her calm, imagining how difficult it had to be to clear her thoughts when someone possessed her. But I couldn't linger for long as the battle entered a new phase.

My body bristled with magicules, which told me Ember's firestorm was a success. I had a defensive rune etched into my armor, and as the next step, I had to copy it into the stuffed toy. Careful to do it backward so hostile spells couldn't escape, rather than protecting it.

Sewing Lambert's and Omerta's pattern into the dragon toy was more difficult than the seal. And it needed a similar amount of mana as the spells it was to prevent, so I had to give it my all for a single attempt. Even that seemed too little to restrict Addas once we sealed him away.

And again, I didn't have the luxury of concentrating in a quiet room alone. It was much more difficult to think straight pressed for time and in the middle of the battle.

"Here they come." Emi sounded excited. I couldn't tell if she realized this was a life-threatening situation instead of a game we played. "Finally some action. You guys always took all the glory."

I couldn't commit my all when my little sister fought for her life within my arm's reach. But she enjoyed herself, a bit too much. As the wave of monsters threw themselves at her and the paladin, they cut them down without breaking a sweat. Cath told us she couldn't use miracles inside the dungeon, but her movements reminded me of a deadly dance. Fast and refined, my sister was in good hands by her side.

The Saipole girl didn't let them finish. She joined our formation and wiped out the last wave of monsters. Her blue robes were in tatters, sweat dripping from her face, looking at us with distrust. Especially at the cat. But with no better way to survive this madness, she introduced herself.

"I'm Aoi, and those humans are my captives." She claimed, wiping some blood off her face. "As long as we fight that dragon, I'm willing to accept an alliance in the name of Saipole. I will serve justice on the northerners, but I won't discriminate against the Lesser Races."

"Yeah, whatever." The Princess waved her off, still trying to focus. "You said we're free to go if we cleared the dungeon, and you don't even have to order us to work hard on it."

The monsters were all wiped out, and the Dragon God floating above us stopped firing too. Corpses layered the courtyard, burning pixie wings fluttering like flower petals. The images of his interrupted ritual were vivid and brutal. The earthy smell of blood filling my nostrils, I prepared for the second rune, using the pause to focus. I caught Addas' grin.

"Not half bad." He nodded with an eerie smile. "The adventurers who left those toys behind didn't last this long. And you found them an interesting purpose."