"The Divine Court is the religion worshipping the deities called Aspects but depending on the region their number or their order of importance changes. From Theocracy believing Aspect of light, Citranus is the most important of the Aspects to rural Catalina who belive Corin Aspect of Life should be most venerated."

-Extract from "On History and Culture of Edor."

 

 

---

 

 

Iris and Kia looked at each other and silently went into the cave followed by the dead goblin. The cave's floor was littered with bones and rotting meat, filling the air with a putrid smell assaulting the elf's nose.
Sounds of goblin shouts bounced off the rough stone walls of the cave.
As the two went deeper into the cavern, the leather boot on Iris's feet stepped on the bone littering the ground causing a loud crushing sound to reverberate throughout the cave.

 

"W-wat wat dat?" A high husky voice said.

"Go cek!" A deeper voice said.

"Me me?" A different voice answered.

"Yes dum!" The deep voice said followed by a sound of a slap.

As the girls listen to the goblin arguing a small hairy goblin turned a corner in front of them. "Bad dead things!" He screamed before the silvery spear impaled him.
More voices came from the depths of the cave. When the girls turned the corner from the goblin came, they saw four goblins standing with weapons ready. Upon seeing the two, one of the goblins with a rusted helmet too big for his head started to shout and kick the other goblin urging them to attack.
One of the goblins charged Iris with uncertainty in his eyes, only for her spear to come out of the other side radiating a soft glow tainted with crimson. The remaining goblin charged at two with desperation seeing it as the only way of survival.
The elf shot her left arm forward causing a white light to appear on her open palm, which expanded in a split second sending the goblins across the cavern.
When Iris was about to finish the remaining goblins noise of more goblins streaming out of a tunnel behind them reached the elven ears.
Five more dark hairy creatures rushed from the tunnel trying to surprise the attackers. The stone walls of the cave turned red as the newly arrived goblins were bisected by a dark magical edge which appeared from thin air.
Iris turned her attention back to the enemies in front of her. Two goblins struggled to stand while the third sat still with blank stare blood dripping from his mouth. She made a short work of the stragglers. The elf then shifted her gaze between the two tunnels leading out of the chamber. The distanced sounds of many feet hitting the rough stone floor accompanied by shouts and panicked yells got closer with every second passed.
The two stood still awaiting the wave of goblins. Goblins poured from the tunnel in front of Iris. She was forced to casting magic often to deal with the numerous goblins.
As the tide of goblins continued and the chamber filled with dozens of corpses, goblins bigger than any before, wearing better armour and weapons appeared from the tunnel in front of Iris.

 

[Inspect]

[Goblin Boss Level 26-31]
{Chief of a goblin tribe}

 

"Dum dead thing, coming here to steal my shinies!" The goblin boss roared and charged at the The elf accompanied by his bodyguards.

 

Iris steadied her weapon and trusted her weapon low, the goblin bodyguard lowered his shield but Iris retreated her weapon and trusted towards his face filling with fear. Blood streamed out of his eyes socket as his body became lifeless. She jumped back dodging a slash from the boss's curved sword. The bloody tip of the spear accelerated forward missing its mark as the goblin boss stepped out of the way and reposted with his weapon. Iris felt her arm burning as the curved sword dug its way through her flesh. She reflexly gritted her teeth and hit the goblin with the back end of her spear sending him stumbling back.

 

"[Mana Light]!" The elf shouted producing a blinding light and trusting where she predicted the boss's body was. A feeling a wave of exhaustion came over Iris.

 

She felt her weapon travelling through flesh and upon regaining the ability to see somewhat she saw the boss on the ground with her spear sticking from his belly. "Please..!" He yelps before she drives her spear deeper. She quickly pulled it out to drive it through another goblin who tried to attack her, she stomps her boot on the boss's throat accompanied by his hand blocking weakly her leather boot.

 

"Run run!"
"Boss dead by dead things!

 

Shouts of panic and fear fill the cave as the remaining goblins trample on each other to escape. Iris looks at her forearm seeing her wound already healed itself. She waits a bit ensuring that no hidden goblin tried to attack her, she let out a tired sigh and felt exhausted.

 

"Everything all right?" A voice came from behind her.

 

"Yea, just feeling a bit tired." She turned around trying to not look drained.

 

Kia's side of the cavern was a massacre, the elf could only think at the sight of goblin corpses being torn to shreds and their remaining scraps littered the floor. Kia herself was covered in blood giving her the eerie visage of a goddess of death herself. The elf also noticed Kia's two coloured eyes glowed with a muted light.

 

"You sure?" The crimson figure approached Iris.

 

"I should be saying this~" The elf gently stroked the once porcelain white cheeks of Kia with her thumb, receiving a strangely alluring smile from the girl. Her eyes glowed even more with blueish light which disappeared as fast as it appeared.

 

The corpses around them rose to their feet and began to pour deeper into the cave with renewed screams reaching their ears. Iris frowned at the undead but the exhaustion plaguing her caused her eyelids to become heavy.

 

"Good job," Kia said catching as Iris began to lose consciousness.

 

 

---

 

Iris found herself laying against a tree when she woke up.
"Agh." She lets out a grunt when the sun shines directly into her sensitive eyes while trying to sit up. She glances around seeing the stream and the cave entrance on her left but when she looked right she saw Kia laying on her side close by breathing gently. Her skin was covered in dried-up blood, unlike her pristine black dress which remain clean.

 

"Hey." Iris shooks Kia.

 

She in turn humms her sleepy response.

 

"What you think you doing?"

 

At the tone of the elf, the girl turned curiously around.

 

"Stand up, we have to clean you up." Iris stood up and dragged the shocked girl.

The elf draged Kia to the stream and began to scrub the blood from the girl's arm. "Stop! I can do it myself, Iris." She huffs and struggles from Iris's grip. "No, you should have clean. your self when left the cave, how could you leave the filthy blood on your beautiful skin." Kia still struggles a bit but eventually resigns herself to faith and sat still in the water.

 

"So what happened yesterday?" The elf asks while cleaning Kia's back.

 

"You passed out from mana exhaustion and I finished dealing with the goblins." She spoke. "You should be more careful with how you use your magic." She turns around to look at Iris. "Maybe want me to teach you when we have free time?"

 

"Sure I would love that." The elf peeled her gaze from Kia's back and looked her in the eyes. "By the way what did you with the undead?"

 

"They stay in the cave, why you ask?"

 

"We have to ensure that no more goblins will crawl out of that cave so we would have to put everything to the torch including the bodies."

 

"Aa."

Iris resumed her work and slowly progressed with the cleaning of every blood-stained on Kia's body.

 

"Kia."

 

"Finished?"

 

"No, but I will have to take off your dress." The elf said.

 

"Sure,... Iris?" She was about to take off her dress which she always wore when she stopped and frowned at the elf.

 

"Yes?"

 

"You are staring." The girl said turning her blushing face from the elf.

 

"Oh sorry, I was just thinking of something." The elf quickly exited the water and walked away, her face burning with the embarrassment of her action.

 

The Risen looked down and saw her clothes being partially covered in blood and with Kia's size, bloody hand marks smeared on her right side walked downstream and started to undress. She walked into the clear waters of the stream colouring it red. Iris cleaned her body the best she could in the small stream and began to wash her clothing.
When she finished and got herself dressed, Iris walked to their camp avoiding looking where Kia was.
The elf opened her backpack to retrieve a towel and saw that the tent was stuffed unevenly in the bag with a bloody mark on it.