Mia breathed in slowly, watching the lights descend from the ceiling and melt into the floor. “Why here…” It couldn’t be true, why would those lights appear here? It didn’t make sense. She was stuck, frozen in fear, only focusing on those slowly descending lights.

“Mia?”

Looking up at John, Mia had noticed he lowered his weapon, clearly confused at her sudden shift in behavior. Seeing this, Mia raised her shaking hands in front of her face, clenching them into fists she chuckled to herself. Where was that bravado from a few moments ago? She was stronger now; she wasn’t a helpless little girl.

Telling herself this, she opened her status screen and split her available points. She vaguely remembered that what ever this light was reducing the effect of magic, she also didn’t know how to use magic anyways, so she decided to increase her stats to fit her current style and to up her survivability. She put 25 into strength and the other half into constitution, happy seeing her health jump from 30 to 280.

She stood up, flexing her hand and testing the difference. She then brought her attention to John, who was still cautiously keeping his distance.

Seeing her stand up he raised his weapon again “Mia what is going on?! Why did, what are these lights?”

“Dangerous.” She shook her head “From the church, they reduce others magic. Hide the members.” She then nodded to herself; this way of speaking felt better for her. She also found it calming “Need to leave, now.” She pulled out one of her daggers and motioned towards the exit. She could leave without him, but his combat power would be very reassuring, if she could convince him to co-operate.

Taking a few steps back when Mia drew her weapon John gulped “N-no, this is another one of your lies. A trick, you are just-“

Mia twitched “John! Don’t have time for this! This is the same thing they used on my village, please.” Mia pleaded, she doubted she even had the time to get him to co-operate, he was in too much of a denial. Seeing him shake his head and begin speaking in protest again she gave up, not listening to his words and slipping past him, dodging his hand he reached out to grab her with.

“Don’t believe? Fine, Leaving before trapped in here.” Ignoring the shouting protests from behind, Mia moved towards the entrance. She figured it was her best bet, while going deeper into the dungeon was also an option, to hide until the lights went away, she had a nagging feeling in the back of her mind they wouldn’t go away until she was found and cornered. She’d rather have a chance to run away.

They were not that far into the dungeon, with all the traps already laid out it was an easy jog to the entrance. Mia knelt down once the entrance came into view, looking for any signs of movement. Thankfully it didn’t seem like any others have entered the dungeon since them, but that only made her wary of the entrance…

“Mia! Wait up!”

She frowned, looking back she saw John running up to her. “Shh…” Mia waved him over, hoping he would get the hint.

After stopping away from her and a moment of contemplation he approached and knelt beside her “I’m still suspicious of you but… you seem serious… If you try anything funny.”

Rolling her eyes Mia figured he must have calmed down a bit “Not lying.” She whispered, then pointed towards the entrance, now illuminated with a purple hue. “They used this to attack my village, magic is useless, they hide in the light. Have to run.”

John looked troubled “You seem insistent on that, what if it’s something else? It’s too soon for the church to go evil like this.”

Mia looked back at him in disbelief “Why say that? You said yourself the church was evil.”

“Well… not like this, usually its just like, a faction or some small church in the countryside harboring demons.” John said, patting his armor “From what I was taught in my lessons the church of Gaia wants world peace, I suspected other churches, or if it was to get this bad then it should have happened after I defeated the demon lord… a post story after you… well, yeah…” John said, trailing off into a mumble towards the end of it.

There was a lot Mia wanted to comment on, but she did not have the time. “Sure… so saying it is that bad, what do?” hoping he might have better insight in what to do rather than just charge blindly out the exit and hope for the best, Mia asked.

John placed his hand on his chin, lightly stroking it “Well, usually you’d go out and confront them. You don’t know how to use your magic, and I am not much of a magic user myself so what ever this is, “he gestured to the light “won’t affect us much. How strong are they?”

Mia considered it for a moment, she did not have much of a reference to work with. “No clue.”

John suddenly stood up “Well, it’s one of the first events, can’t be that bad.” He then lightly stretched and started walking towards the entrance.

“Wait, stop.” He wasn’t listening, Mia could only watch as he brazenly walked on. Mia clenched her dagger; she’d have to look for a chance to escape while he distracted them at this point. With her sister in mind, she followed him out.

The view that welcomed them was to be expected, the sky was dyed purple with motes of light raining onto a scene that further reminded Mia of her destroyed village. Carriages flipped over and destroyed, with the one in the back lit ablaze. The bodies of horses, maids, and butlers strewn about in their own blood. With the decapitated body of the princess laid bare on the table she was using to process documents.

“W-what is this…” John muttered.

At that moment people dressed in white robes appeared, some in the trees, others on top of the overturned carriages. Turning around Mia saw some even appear on top of the dungeon entrance.

“Greeting’s hero!”

Turning to the voice, sitting at the table, was a man in a gold trimmed white robe, holding several documents in their hand.

“Sorry about the mess, we of the church have discovered the princesses plot to usurp the kingdom. And have taken the liberty of snipping that problem before it blooms.”

John pointed his weapon towards him “Y-you! What did you do to Athena?! What is the meaning of this?!”

While this was going on, Mia hid behind John, trying to find an opportunity to make a run for it, but by the looks of it all she could do was try and avoid drawing attention to herself.

“Huh? Did I not just say it?” The man looked towards one of his subordinates, who nodded towards him “Yes, I did. I will make it clearer then.” He stood up with a sigh, flipping through the documents in his hand. “Your princess Athena, under the investigation of the church, is fined with treason to the crown.”

John gripped his sword “Liar! Athena would never do that… you villains, first Mia’s hometown and now this.”

“Hrm…?”

Mia froze, the one thing she didn’t want to happen had happened, she felt the man’s gaze on her, followed by everyone else’s.

“Oh, that is interesting… What happened to her slave collar?” The man glanced towards the corpse of the princess and brought his palm to his face “Oh princess, you didn’t.” He then shrugged “Well, no matter.” He then brought his attention to John “I’d hope this hero shared our views when we heard he purchased a slave, unlike the last one… but that seems not to be the case.”

John lowered his blade a bit “the last one?” he then slowly looked back to Mia before the man coughed, bringing his attention back to him.

“Well, it doesn’t matter.” He sat back down at the desk “Hero, I will be frank, today is a very good day for us, it is the day of our victory after all. Since you know the truth and shield that beast behind your back, I fear I won’t convince you to join our side.” The man stared at John for a moment “And seeing those stats… hmph, the princess did keep you cooped up.” The man took off his hood, revealing his bald face “Rumors say you have appraisal, yes? Go ahead and use it before you do something stupid.”

John was confused at first, then after a moment of silence he slammed his weapon into the ground, surprising Mia who jumped away from him “Fuck this.” John said, plopping on the ground “Fucking hell mode peace of shit. First event my ass.”

Mia alternated her view between John, and the man, questioning what he just saw that would provoke such an action.

The man chuckled “I wonder what he just saw.” He teased, putting his hood back on “And you…How did you slip past the cracks?” He spoke towards Mia “[Shrine Maiden] huh? Shame you are not in the storage room, beast, we’d put you to good use.”

“Hey, leave her out of this, I am the one you guys want, right?” John said from his position on the floor, arms crossed.

“Listen ‘hero’ it doesn’t matter anymore, especially for her. The princess picked a very good day for us to leave the capitol.” He stood up, looking down the road and spreading his arms wide “Today, any moment now, our plans years in the making will come to fruition.”

John laid back “Oh yeah? Tell us all~ about it, asshole.”

Thinking this might be a good chance to run, Mia took a few slow steps away from them, she then felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking back she saw the hand belonged to one of the many figures wearing a white cloak.

“Today, by the power of the gift bestowed to us by our god, beasts will be cleansed crossed the continent, peace will be had by all, the land no longer wasted by a bunch of beasts.”

“Yup, sure.”

“Humans will dominate as the rightful rulers, sitting next to god! The beasts will be cleansed by our light, justice wi-“ The man continued to rant while John laid one the floor, uninterested.

“John, what are you doing?” Mia asked, struggling to get free in the man’s arms.

John glanced towards her “Fuck this, this is either hell mode and I messed up or this is some scripted bullshit. Watch, some other hero will come and save us or a god like being.”

“What? What are you talking about?!”

He shrugged, pointing to the man who was still ranting “I can’t stop that, and he said they already had something going on back at the capitol so why bother.”

Mia couldn’t bel-no, John doing this was… She had to figure out what to do for herself. She tried to free herself from the man’s grip but couldn’t, but what were her options if she did? Run back into the dungeon and lose them? She had a map with all the traps on it, but again she vaguely had a feeling that wouldn’t work, so what else was there?

While thinking about it, the ground shook, and in the distance they all saw a large black cloud rise into the sky.

“Yes! The cleansing has started! The cloud shall expand across the world! Ridding it of beasts! Demons! Monsters!” The man shouted.

John looked up from his position on the floor, his eyes going wide “Wait…that’s…” He sat up quickly “You idiots!”

Mia watched as something originating from the massive cloud approached them, the cloud itself spreading high into the sky while thinning out at it’s base, it reminded her of a mushroom.

With the ground now rumbling, John shouted “That’s a nuke!”

A nuke? What is- before she had time to question it, her vision was briefly replaced by a bright red light, followed by an intense burning pain, then nothing. She found her conscious floating in a black void, alone, before a loud *ping* brought her attention to a floating blue panel beside her.

[You have died, load last save? {YES/NO}]