Arthur hurried to keep up with the others. Well, he hurried to keep up with Millie and Sean. Lord Darius had fallen behind all of them, the Rank A alchemist moving as if he were taking a midmorning stroll through a park and not hurrying to save the two others from a blighted Demon.


    The fact that the former soldier was more than capable of reaching the others within the minute only made it worse. Their patron’s usual antics were one thing—hell, even the recent incident of the alleged ‘supply cache’ was still one thing. Leaving two of his own students to be gutted by a Demon—a higher Demon by all probability—Arthur nearly froze.


    Does he know something we don’t?


    Resuming his own chaotic jog, the archmage decided that the answer to that was ‘nearly certainly.’ Lord Darius Loch always knew things the rest of them didn’t—such as, well, figuring out that the supposed ‘healer’ they’d rescued from an infernal cult was, in fact, the Demon itself.


    So given that Arthur himself suspected he was the only one in the group who was aware of their ‘Von Gershenfeld’s’ true heritage—it wasn’t much of a stretch to conclude Lord Darius was perfectly aware as well. Which means…


    It meant that the Lord thought Lily had things under control. Or if not her, then at least Andric did. The sudden realization did a lot to assuage Arthur’s anxiety—to the point that the archmage started looking forward to the encounter more than anything.


    On the one hand, he already wanted to get closer to Liliana for his own research ambitions. And on the other hand, walking in on her and Andric doing—whatever it was they were doing, with none other than Lord Darius himself at his side? Things could certainly get rather interesting.


    At this point, realizing that the supposed ‘healer’ was really a Demon was just the garnish to top it all off. Arthur was most definitely fascinated to see how exactly this one was going to play out—for multiple reasons, of course.


    So engrossed was he in his excitement that Arthur failed to notice Millie falling back to run beside him. That was, until she elbowed him in the side, quite nearly causing the slender mage to trip and stumble. “Told you so,” she muttered. “Seems like this backwater simpleton has a head good for something or other after all.”


    Of course she would take this as an opportunity to bother me. “I don’t exactly recall you predicting that it was a Demon, of all things. And I’ll also have you remember that I already agreed with you.”


    Just because the arrow-slinging enchanter was right didn’t mean that she had any right to act superior to him. There were still firmly-etched lines which the archmage was not willing to have crossed.


    “Sure, sure. And if you remember, I’m still the one who suggested it.”


    A disinterested grunt was the only thing such a bothersome pest deserved in response. Arthur then sped up a little to put some distance back between them. Millie, of course, just sped up—and she was faster than him. But that just meant he had to let her think she was winning, and then he could slow back down and enjoy some peace and quiet. All according to plan.


    Said plan was interrupted when they realized Sean stopped in place some distance ahead of them. The towering paladin—technically just regular Templar, he wasn’t a paladin yet—well either way, he had taken to simply standing still to survey the streets. Why?


    Arthur was more than a little out of breath when he caught up, so he appreciated Millie for asking the question for him—if little else. Sean’s answer took both of them by surprise. “What happened to the undead?”


    But he was right. Having been so caught-up in the news Lord Darius dropped on them, Arthur hadn’t considered the strange lack of ghouls everywhere around them. Had they even passed a single one?


    “You know, I’d wanna say that this is pretty lucky,” Millie started to say, “but something tells me this just means there’s something worse.”


    All three of them shared a lingering look. It was clear both Arthur and Sean were thinking the same thing—she was probably right.


    “She is probably correct,” Lord Darius intoned from behind all of them. “A conspicuous lack of undead in places where they ought to be implies an excessive density somewhere else.”


    The archmage blinked. Was that supposed to be a problem?


    “Where do you think they went, sir? And what brought them there?” It looked like Sean went and asked the obvious question.


    Stepping ahead of them, Lord Darius removed his noticeably long and slender hands from the pockets of his long, deep-blue coat—only to place them right back where they were. Just, on the outside this time. He made a drawn out show of surveying the way ahead before he spoke. “For your first question, I find it likely our ghouls have run off to the same place our wonderful Liliana has. As for the second—I suppose we can ask her that ourselves when we get there.”


    A pause—and then the Rank A alchemist slowly pivoted back around to face them. For all that the man presented himself with an attitude of indifferent understatement—he really was far too fond of theatrics. “Or perhaps one of you three could provide an explanation?” He ended that last part by staring straight at Arthur.


    Well, damn. Not only did their patron know at least as much as Arthur did—he knew that the Archmage knew too. Nevertheless, the others didn’t. Arthur wasn’t going to go and spoil that. He pursed his lips.


    Arching an eyebrow, Lord Darius inclined his head. “Perhaps I can offer—mmm—say, fifty pounds tender for the first correct answer?”


    Arthur’s eyes widened, but Millie quite literally jumped forward before the archmage could fully register what he’d just heard. “All the ghouls are in the same place as Lily because she got impatient and ran off to go level up by doing something arrogant and stupid!”


    Arthur wanted to slap his forehead upon hearing that. Lord Darius smirked. “While that is technically correct, it is not quite the answer I am looking for. Perhaps someone could be more specific? After all, I fail to see just how Lady Gershenfeld could draw the attention of so many monsters in such a vast area.”


    The mocking emphasis on the name Gershenfeld couldn’t have been more obvious—and as if that weren’t enough already, the Rank A sadist was back to looking directly at Arthur with that signature, faintly smug look.


    It was almost necessary to suppress a groan. Fifty pounds was a lot of money—so all of this nonsense readily distilled down to Lord Darius bribing Arthur to spill the beans in front of everyone. But why would he—well, he would do it because he was rich and thought it was funny. There was no need to read into it when the answer was simple enough.


    A deep breath, and Arthur stepped forward. “It’s because she’s not a Gershenfeld at all. Her real name is Liliana Von Blodmane.” Three surprised gasps at that, and only two of them might be at all genuine. “There’s no doubt she has access to methods which can draw infernal creatures to her. I’m sure she could manage at least that for something as simple and low-level as these ghouls.”


    The difference in reactions upon finishing was—interesting, honestly. Sean wore a conflicted—but firm—look as he pondered the massive revelation. Darius pretended to look thoughtful, but Millie—why did she look so angry?


    “Seriously? Are you really gonna give him fifty pounds for that? I answered first, you know! You said I was right! You said!”


    _____


    It came as quite a surprise to Zoe that the question ‘why aren’t there any stars’ turned out to be really, really important. Like—this information is pivotal to the politics, culture, and history of this entire world. Oh and it also related especially closely to Zoe’s particular circumstances, of course.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The answer also turned out to be fairly simple. “Oh, that’s easy. There used to be stars and stuff, but then the Elder Gods did something bad and now there aren’t any stars anymore.” Lilith said it like it was obvious, common knowledge that explained everything. And she probably would have been right, if Zoe were literally anyone other than herself. As things were, however…


    I feel like there’s a whole lot of, uh, context that we’re glossing over here. Mind elaborating a little bit?


    To Zoe’s immense surprise, Lilith was able to fill in the necessary details in about a single minute. Not that Zoe was counting—she was too busy dodging ghouls and following the tingle of her horns—antennae—toward the source of the infernal magic. She had to rely on her antennae now because the undead weren’t useful for directions anymore, what with how densely packed they’d become.


    So let me make sure I have the basics down. There used to be stars and a moon—


    “Two moons,” Lilith interrupted. “Technically there were two moons. But only one of them was like a normal moon you’d think of. The other one was apparently really small and dim and took way longer to move across the sky.”


    Right. So there was a normal, largish moon vaguely similar to the one orbiting Earth. Then there was also a tiny moon—probably more like a large asteroid—that was caught in an eccentric orbit much further out.


    Or at least, that’s what Lilith guessed, based on the apparition’s confusing mixture of fantasy-world knowledge and Zoe knowledge. But either way, Zoe didn’t think that astronomical precision was the most important thing here.


    “I mean, you did literally start by asking about not seeing stars, so…”


    Ignoring the possibly true remark, Zoe went back to reviewing the salient information. So there were a couple moons and normal stars and shit, probably other planets too. Lilith didn’t say anything, so she probably had the right idea. Then, give or take three thousand years ago, the gods fought against—some sort of apocalyptic monsters which were really bad. Then everything in the sky except the sun—for some reason—vanished. Also a bunch of unnamed but probably really powerful civilizations fell apart, some sort of other disaster happened, and uh… Oh yeah, now literally everything still related to the dead gods in any way is terribly cursed and no one should touch it.


    While Lilith wasn’t currently visible, Zoe got the emotional impression of a nod and a pleased smile. “Yeah that’s mostly correct. The gods did have actual names though, but no one knows what any of them actually were. They just have a handful of vague titles people use to refer to them now. There’s also a set of symbols associated with them. The symbols do come from actual ancient ruins and stuff, so they’re probably mostly accurate.


    Yeah, that was all good to know. What was also good to know—but also uncomfortable to dwell on—was that the underground temple Zoe first woke up in was one of those elder ruins. To make matters worse, it was an elder temple—you know, a temple to the dead gods that had terrible curses on everything connected to them. Shit.


    Lilith… those symbols, are they the same symbols that were on the floor of the inner sanctum I woke up in?


    “Eh, no idea!” Zoe—didn’t really know if that made things better or worse. “I don’t have any knowledge of what the god-symbols are supposed to look like—which is honestly pretty annoying right now.”


    Yeah, Zoe could imagine. Or maybe she couldn’t. Nevertheless, the likely conclusion seemed—likely. There was another way to approach it, though. Do you know how many gods there were?


    Turns out, Lilith did. “Yeah that one’s easy. Three. Well, sort of. There were three gods, but also nine—sort of. Like, there were supposedly nine distinct people who had divinity, and there were nine different names. But they were also all in trios, with each trio sharing the same underlying divine whatever-it-is.”


    Zoe frowned. Like the Christian trinity?


    “Yeah, like that, except if there were three different ones and not just one ‘three-in-one’ trinity thing.”


    That was both mildly interesting and probably also good to know. What was a lot more important though was how it fit into what Zoe remembered from the sealed chamber back within that temple. There had been nine symbols arranged around the central star. A nine-pointed star made out of three triangles. Each tip of that star had pointed to one of the nine different sarcophagi.


    “Yeah, it’s kind of obvious when you put it that way,” Lilith hummed more to herself than to Zoe. “Also definitely explains what was up with that whole ‘scion’ thing.”


    There was also that too, Zoe recalled after Lilith mentioned it. It only took Zoe a moment to find it in the history of her system messages.


    Welcome, Scion of <veiled>.


    Oh yeah, and there’s also a quest. It was the first quest Zoe had gotten, and she was still nowhere closer to completing it. Then again, it had been like a day and a half. Also, if everything that had to do with the gods was terribly cursed—Zoe wasn’t sure she wanted to complete it.


    [CLAIM YOUR RIGHT]


    As the Scion of <veiled>, you alone now possess a divine right to this temple.


    The other inhabitants might disagree. Prove them wrong.


    -Rewards-


    Divine claim to the Temple of <veiled>.


    Zoe read through it twice. Yeah… how about ‘no.’ Even without the looming threat of divine curses, Zoe had already witnessed firsthand how dealing with the so-called ‘other inhabitants’ could go.


    Zoe’s thoughts were interrupted by Lilith poking her—mentally—to get her attention. “I think we found the thing we were trying to find!” Looking around, Zoe—didn’t really see anything. It was just more darkness, ghouls, falling-down buildings, and cold air. She couldn’t actually see either the cold or the air, but it was the thought that counted.


    Actually—the ghouls were all cramming themselves against a taller building straight ahead. It looked like they were trying to force themselves inside—the result being that they were literally crushing each other inward from every direction. More were arriving by the second, so Zoe needed to retreat and figure this out—otherwise she’d end up immobilized and crushed to death by festering, cannibalistic zombies. Not a fun way to go.


    So with that decided, Zoe backtracked to another nearby building that still had multiple stories standing. To her relief, there didn’t seem to be any ghouls inside it—probably because they were all crushing themselves against the other building. Lucky, because it made finding the stairs, realizing the stairs had collapsed, and subsequently clawing her way up to three stories to the roof significantly easier.


    Not that it was easy. Even with her hundred-plus stats boosting her basic abilities far beyond what should be possible for an average Human, it was kind of hard to scale sheer rock walls.


    So difficult in fact that Zoe was forced to drop all of her active skills—including lesser disguise. In fact, that was the most important one. Not only did it free up her energy and focus—it made her fingers go from being actual fingers to being those hard, sharp, segmented claws.


    It still wasn’t easy, but being it so she could literally dig her fingertips, or claws, about a quarter inch into the stone. The claws on her feet also ruined her not-duct tape ‘boots,’ but that was going to happen soon enough anyway.


    Reaching the roof, Zoe was pleased to find that it was mostly intact—or it at least looked that way. She really hoped it wasn’t going to suddenly collapse on her and send her plummeting. Near death experiences from falling three stories really shouldn’t happen more than once a week.


    “Sounds like you’re tempting our fate to me.”


    “Shut up Lilith.” Walking to the edge of the roof, Zoe looked down at the mob of ghouls. They were starting to finally flow into and up the other building. Flow, because it was more like hungry, undead paste being squeezed upwards excruciatingly slowly than distinct creatures entering. But what was it they were moving towards?


    Moving her gaze upwards, Zoe scanned the opposing roof. But she didn’t see anything—maybe it’s inside on the top floor? Then the sound of a door banging open rang out, and someone rushed up the stairs and out onto the roof proper. Lily looked rather frantic as she ran around the roof, like she was trying to find a way to escape.


    Did she do this herself? Even if it wasn’t technically an infernal alignment, she did have a weakness to hallow, after all. But realizing that she was now just standing out in the open in her raw Demon-form, Zoe started pondering whether to reactivate lesser disguise.


    Glancing back towards Lily, she met the ice-mage’s eyes. Zoe blinked. Had the elemental summoner seen her? It was so dark—the only thing that let Zoe herself see anything was her high perception. But then again—she was still only level fifteen.


    Lily blinked several times. “Zoe?!”


    Shit.


    A shimmering bolt of icy magic shot across the gap between the roofs. The small, glittering projectile let out a faint tinkling noise similar to the Frostburn magic used by the cultist Zoe killed. But Zoe also remembered how painful it was when that same magic burned out one eye and nearly killed her—so she dodged the attack and prepared to run.


    As it turned out, it wasn’t exactly an attack—unless you counted sudden light exposure to be a form of assault. As soon as the tinkling bolt hit the roof beside her, it bloomed into a field of gentle, pale-blue light. It wasn’t even that bright, but Zoe was also right beside it. There was no doubt it illuminated her well-enough—and she’d forgotten to actually activate lesser disguise.


    Lily’s mouth dropped open.


    Shit.


    Even across the empty space, Zoe could just make it out as Lily muttered a curse in disbelief.