Phyllis proposed her idea to actually summon Milith’s grandfather. Misaki was clearly surprised by the proposal. She didn’t blame her. Summoning an extremely powerful being was a risky proposition in the best of circumstances. These were not the best of circumstances, and she understood that, but if they weren’t playing by the rules anymore, they didn’t have a choice. That relic the paladin had actually allowed them to bust through a dungeon gate. A feat that while technically possible never normally happened. It was well known that dungeons were alive, and that tunneling through them hurt them. The pain was often a good way to cause a dungeon to go rogue, and as such, it was forbidden. While Phyllis couldn’t do it herself, if she had focused on earth magic she would have been able to do so at her level.

“I’m not even sure that is a good idea,” said Misaki. Some pain was still evident in her voice from the recent shot at her insides.

“It's a terrible idea, but do you have a better one?” countered Phyllis. As she stood up, and gave Misaki a glare.

“No. I don’t have a better one,” admitted Misaki after a moment's hesitation.

“I didn’t think you did,” said Phyllis. Misaki was silent for a minute before saying, “I really don’t think we should do this, but I don’t think we have a lot of time before they reach this floor. I just hope you are prepared to pay the price.”

Phyllis had been starting to walk towards the dome, but spun back around and said with a serious tone, “I’d pay anything to keep you safe.”

Misaki replied, “I know you would, but the thing is we might not end up paying the price. Have you noticed that Milith has a very different sense of time from you and I? Her grandfather, according to the book is no different. Being effectively immortal, the contracts he forges may very well last millennia. Meaning it won’t be us paying for this, but our descendants.”

“I might not last that long, but I know you will,” replied Phyllis. Dungeons weren’t immortal, but if they survived their infancy phase they often lived for several millennia. The oldest dungeon she knew of was roughly nine thousand years old. Misaki came up and hugged her saying, “I know I might. I just want to be sure you are certain. I don’t want us to make a decision we might regret.”

With a sad tone, Phyllis said, “I don’t think we have much of a choice. Besides, I would like to get this done before he blasts another door.”

Misaki didn’t say anything, but instead broke the hug. Heading for the chamber, while calling for some demon maids to fill out the other positions for the ritual. At the door to the chamber she disrobed. Phyllis was close behind her, and without a word did the same. They had both practiced the ritual a number of times just in case they needed to use it. As such, they were also both quite aware that they couldn’t use clothes unless they were made with very special materials. Thankfully, she had been able to get some from Eriko. Unfortunately, the special cloth was difficult and expensive to produce even for a dungeon. The result was that the prepared ritual outfits covered very little.

Personally, Misaki didn’t much care. Her demonic heritage gave her an affinity for skimpy clothing, but she knew the clothes bothered Phyllis a bit. Even if she was getting more comfortable with herself now. The ritual clothes basically amounted to a pair of panties and a bra. Covering just enough that their privates weren’t showing. Thanks to the fact that the material adhered itself to the skin like a second set of skin, they didn’t need straps or anything to keep it on. As such the bra part had no back, so from behind it would look as if they were topless. The panties lacked the strings that were popular for holding them up, and as such had no sides.

Entering the chamber proper, Misaki spared another glance at the group of hostile adventurers making their way through her sixth floor. It was a giant labyrinth and directly linked with the seventh as part of the labyrinth. Right now it seemed they were going the wrong way, but she didn’t think that would last. Given the speed they had gone through her previous floors, she felt that this was the last real roadblock for them. Which meant if they were to do the ritual, it needed to be done before they found their way through the labyrinth. Otherwise, they might not have the time to complete the ritual.

Before long the other members for the ritual had arrived. Misaki noting they had arrived ceased her idle chat with Phyllis, and took up her position. Smiling at Phyllis, she said, “let’s get started, and I hope we are making the right choice.”

Phyllis didn’t say anything. She merely gave a wry smile and took up her own starting position. As soon as everyone was ready, both Phyllis and Misaki began the ritual.

It started not with a chant, but a song. Laced with powerful magic the notes reached all within the chamber and stirred powerful emotions in their hearts. The song quickly reached its first peak, and with a signal from Phyllis and Misaki, they began to dance.

The dance was incredibly sensual and erotic to the point that any man who saw it would have had lust stir in his heart. Each move signaled purpose, and mana quickly began to flow in the room like water. Ribbons of multicolored light began to form and flow around the dancing figures in the crystal chamber. Each ribbon of light was pure elemental mana condensed into a visible form, and flowed with purpose. As the mana flowed time lost all meaning for the occupants within the chamber.

Nathaniel stopped in the middle of the corridor, as he felt the mana around him change. All of the mana was beginning to flow in a strange way. It took him a moment to realize the mana was all flowing deeper into the dungeon, and not only that but it had a strange feel to it. It was as if someone had mixed holy light and celestial mana with the unholy dark, and infernal manas. The process creating an entirely new, and tainted mana.

“Something wrong, sir,” said one of his subordinate holy knights behind him. He looked at him, and replied, “You don’t feel that? The dungeon is doing something. Something unnatural.”

The man looked around, and returned a confused look, “I don’t feel anything off.”

Another man behind him, interjected, “You need to work on your mana sense. Something unnatural is going on. We need to hurry.”

Nathanial felt he was right, and they hurried down the corridor. All of them worried about what this unnatural mana they had never felt before meant. However they all knew they would soon find out, but the question was would they be able to stop it or will they be too late?

  Eriko woke next to her husband. As an elf, she had highly attuned mana senses, and she could feel something was wrong. Something was happening, but it felt distant. Turning to her husband she saw he was already awake and was pulling on his clothes.

“Get dressed. We need to find the court mage,” said King Stormwind. Using her senses she tasted the mana in the air and quickly realized why. There was a strange mana flowing towards the southwest. One she had never felt before, but it had an almost shadowy feel to it. One she couldn’t quite place. So without a word, she rushed to her wardrobe and slipped off her nightdress. Then she grabbed a simple dress that was easy to put on, and she often used as everyday attire when she wasn’t expected to appear for formal events.

Slipping it on, she followed her husband out the door, and they went towards the mage’s tower. Given the fact that this mana had woken them up in the middle of the night, they suspected she was likely to be there.

Sure enough, they found her in the mage’s tower. What they had not expected was for her to be pouring over her books in her underwear. Which basically amounted to a single pair of worn panties and nothing else. The woman was a small elf barely taller than a child, but she had a decent figure. Her modest bust was currently exposed to the air. Eriko ushered her husband out of the room, as soon as she noticed, and then turned to her court mage.

“Shiori! What are doing? Couldn’t you have spared a second to put something on?” said Eriko in a firm tone. The kind she normally used with her children when they had done something wrong. Shiori looked down at her practically naked body, and then went back to the book she was reading.

“Nothing wrong with a little nudity, and besides who cares. Can’t you feel this magic flowing in the air? At first I thought it was an entirely new magic, but this book details an ancient magic. From how it is described, the feel is quite similar, but different. I think this magic is related to the ancient magic in this book,” responded Shiori to excited about learning a new magic to care that she was effectively naked. Eriko wasn’t sure what to say first. On one hand, she had a naked elf that needed to put on some clothes, and on the other was this strange magic in the air. In the end, after a moment's indecisiveness, her curiosity won out. Sitting down in a chair next to Shiori, she asked, “What have you learned about this strange mana?”

“It’s shadow mana. According to legend, it is the divine mana of the Primordial Gods. This book describes a number of magical rituals that use this mana type. All of them are quite powerful,” said Shiori.

“Can you tell me what it is being used for?” asked Eriko. Shifting her seat to look at the book Shiori was holding.

“The mana is primarily pulling on several advanced mana types including time and space. In fact, it is almost reminiscent of a summoning spell, but it is lacking the usual soul magic component,” said Shiori with a wistful expression having looked up from her book to respond.

“Maybe it is a summoning spell,” said Eriko thoughtfully as she leaned back in her chair. Shiori gave her an odd look, and then replied, ‘I very much doubt that. There are several reasons summoning spells use soul magic. The first is that it is simply easier to pull just a soul across planes than a physical body. Then there is the fact that it is easier to return a soul than a physical body anyway. Anyway if it is a summoning spell, then it is one trying to pull a physical object, and that is going to require a phenomenal amount of magic. Even dungeons with their huge stockpiles would have difficulty supplying that kind of spell,” replied Shiori but before Eriko could give a response a blue box filled her vision.

The magic twisted and the light of the flowing mana spilled into the doorway that dominated the rear of the chamber. Then it exploded outward, and a swirling blue and green portal that looked almost like standing water appeared in the curved arch. From it a light shot out, and a figure formed in the circle before the arch.

Where previously had been empty space, a small half-naked girl nursing a baby spider girl now sat in an old and worn wooden chair. She had long flowing very dark brown, almost black in color hair. Her black eyes had a slight bluish glow to them that was framed by a cute young face. She was wrapped in simple brown and blue robes, that had been pushed aside to uncover her sizeable chest. A simple blue strip of cloth had been wrapping her breasts, but it had also been pushed aside leaving her nipples exposed. The lower part of the robes was still mostly untouched. Her feet were entirely bare, and her exposed legs were hairless.

Misaki and Phyllis stared for a moment, and then looked at each other. “I think we messed up somewhere,” said Misaki breaking the silence. Neither had expected the spell to summon this strange sight. Before Phyllis could even reply, the girl spoke up, “No you didn’t make a mistake. I’m indeed Jontharr of Clan Countryman, but nowadays I go by Arlie of clan Contrey.”

Then almost as if to prove her words a blue box filled their vision.

“Nice to see the system still recognizes me, but that event is a little out of date,” said Arlie just before she snapped her fingers. Instantly a second box appeared.