Right before I fell asleep, an intrusive thought wormed its way into my head.

Why am I going to bed right now when I don’t have my nightgown on?

It was bizarre! The nightgown I’d picked up in Ftheran was so comfortable. It made me sleep like a baby. It felt like just what I needed right now.

Is it really thaaaat important though? I felt the urge to fall asleep heighten for a moment, but I fought back. Of course it was! I was finding it hard to stay focused though.

For a moment, I forgot what I was thinking about, but a notification popped up, and I opened it without a thought.

Mental Resistance has reached level 2!

That felt wrong though. That wasn’t what the text was supposed to say, was it? There was a… a timer, right?

Right! First I’d check my timer, then I’d get my nightgown, and then I’d have a nice nap. I had to do it nice and fast though! I could tell that I was out of steam, so this would have to be the last time I checked it. Although, what was it timing? Huh. Well, who cares! Here we go! Though it was a struggle, I focused on the timer at my neck, and forced it to activate.

Cleansing Shower Gem Pendant activated.

You feel clean and refreshed.

Light’s Shackles debuff removed.

(Cooldown: 1hr)

Without fully understanding why, I collapsed to the ground, finding myself faceplanting into a pool of my own blood.

As I fell, a wave of icy clarity spiked through my brain. What the hell am I doing?

I still had a monstrous headache, and every thought felt like it was shot out of a rotating cannon into a sea of molasses, but immediately it struck me that things were very wrong and no matter how much I wanted to, I could not go to sleep.

Despite that sense, however, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to remember exactly what was wrong were it not for my body helping me out. That was to say: Everything fucking hurt! Holy hell, how had I been okay with this?

Thankfully, I didn’t need to have a clear head to reflexively cast Minor Healing. Had the spell been one of the more involved ones I’d seen Elphaea or Ephesis casting, I strongly doubted I would have been able to finish it. As it was, even though the casting was largely just a matter of focus, I felt it stutter before it finally took hold.

Blissful healing mana flowed through me, repairing cuts all across my body, but it wasn’t enough. I’d been cut one too many times, and the blood still ran loose from every corner of me.

Belatedly, I summoned up my armor and channeled some life mana into it. Every few seconds, I cast another healing spell on myself until finally I felt like I wasn’t going to drown myself in my own blood.

Checking my health, I discovered that I’d successfully managed to heal myself all the way up, but despite that, I still felt like shit. My head was starting to clear up a bit, so I was pretty sure that the healing coupled with the hydration had done something to counteract all the blood I’d lost, but I still felt like I’d gone to a pharm party and was just coming down from the world’s worst trip.

I suspected that if I had the presence of mind to look through all my battle notifications, I’d find some sort of debuff buried in there, but the end effect was the same either way. Considering that I was technically at full health, I switched over to my fire enhancement, letting the gentle flames work at the full body chill I’d gained.

Then, when finally my head was clear enough for me to fully remember where I was, mental alarm bells started blaring at full volume. Danger!

I shot up as fast as my shaky limbs would allow for, expecting to find Ephesis looming over me or hatefully glaring at me while he summoned up another pair of chains.

Instead, he just… wasn’t.

As if nothing in the world had happened, Ephesis sat in the center of the circles, chilling in lotus position with his eyes closed. Whether he didn’t know, didn’t care, or wasn’t able to do anything about the fact that I’d escaped the chains, I wasn’t sure, but it was far preferable to the alternative.

And I realized, I had indeed escaped the shackles. I wasn’t thinking to myself “Oh, what a shame I ruined the helpful binding spell,” anymore. It was thankfully very clear to me at this point that Ephesis was using some sort of mind fuckery on me, and the chains had evidently been a serious factor in him getting away with it. Freed from their long list of effects, I was thinking much more clearly. Clearly enough to realize that this ritual wasn’t something he expected me to live through.

None of that, however, was what was currently most important. While I had managed to escape this magical death trap, my four companions were not so lucky. My only saving grace here was that I’d been correct: It seemed that their heightened Constitutions were doing them well. None of them had yet fallen asleep, and in fact, Jason barely seemed to be bleeding at all.

Still, the sight of them was horrifying. Docile and glassy eyes stared outwards as blood flowed like a river from four of the people I knew best on the entire planet. Afraid of causing too much noise for fear of alerting Ephesis that I’d escaped, I stifled my urge to shout out at them. After all, even if I managed to snap them out of whatever mind magic he was using, what would they do about it? I’d only escaped because of my pendant, and even then, I imagined my fairly hefty mental resistance had come into play as well.

Still, I wasn’t about to just watch as they bled out. Starting with Cal who looked the worst off of the four, I shot off a series of heals until I was sure she was stable. I spared one cast for both Hartha and Rock as well, but my mana was dramatically flagging, and fully emptying it out seemed like an awful idea.

Okay, so now what?

The short term goal, I decided, would have to be getting them out of the chains. That would hopefully help them all get back to their senses like it had done for me, but even if it didn’t, the chains had to go. I couldn’t help them all if they were locked in place.

So… do I just… hit them? What the hell else was I supposed to do? It wasn’t like I knew some magic counterspell. Admittedly, Rock hadn’t had much luck that time he’d struck Ephesis’s shield, but that was different: It was a shield after all. Its entire purpose was to hold up to strikes. Hopefully the chains would be less sturdy?

Knowing that I had no time to lose, I went for it. I walked around the circles until I reached Cal and summoned up my spear. Not wanting to make too much noise, I gently brought the spearhead up to one of the chains and applied as much pressure as I could, pushing into them.

Unfortunately, but as expected, it did nothing.

Well, hope you’re a deep sleeper, Ephesis.

This time around, I brought the spear back, slamming it into one of the chains as best I could manage.

Save for a clank and an odd but muted look from the glassy-eyed Cal, nothing happened. Blissfully, that included nothing happening from Ephesis’s front as well, but unless I wanted to keep hitting at it over and over again until something happened, I strongly doubted this was the way to go. After all, even just for Cal, there were four chains to get through.

If I can’t break them, can I get Ephesis to? There had been a line in the spell description about it being a channeled spell, right? He theoretically had to maintain his concentration to keep the spell up, which possibly explained why he was ignoring me.

The main issue there was that he’d summoned up his shield before starting the ritual — a shield that had presumably kept him safe for untold years and had fully stopped Rock.

There had to be some way, though, didn’t there? Think. What do I know about magic shields? Or how can I distract him?

Sound was an option. He managed to speak while he was inside the barrier, so maybe I could make a really loud noise to startle him?

It was an option, but it felt like a weak one. Maybe if I had some sort of obnoxious alarm, I would have tried it, but the best I could do right now was shout or bang together some metal. I’d try it as a last resort, but I didn’t expect that to shock him too much.

What else? Did I even really know anything about magic shields? Thinking back, the only other barriers I’d seen were the ones in the fight against the shades, and further back, Brecker’s in our arena fight.

How had I gotten rid of Brecker’s ice barrier?

Well, I fired a bunch of arrows at it. Don’t think that’s going to work here.

Although, while I hadn’t gotten through his spell that easily, he had, hadn’t he? Somehow he’d managed to cast multiple spells from within the barrier that ended up being able to travel straight through it.

Were barriers one way, or was it something else? Maybe ice barriers were permeable to ice magic?

It would sort of make sense, wouldn’t it? That would keep a mage able to attack from within their barrier, and at the same time, an ice mage would naturally have high enough resistance to ice magic that they wouldn’t be too worried about someone using it to attack them.

It was a rough hunch at best, but at the very least, it was better than anything else I had. Maybe if I could actually land a blow on the high priest, he’d drop his focus.

All right. Well. Here goes.

I rounded the circle, coming up from behind him and summoning up a spear of light. Belatedly, though, I recalled the recent augment I’d gotten to my arrows: They were theoretically supposed to be better at breaking through shields now. I switched to my bow, channeled light mana into it, pulled back, and fired.

The arrow raced forward, slamming into the shield and…!

Nothing. Lodged into the shield, it was fully stopped flat.

Wait.

It was lodged into the shield. It didn’t just bounce off like I would have expected. On closer inspection, the tip of the arrow had managed to sink into the barrier, if only just a fraction of an inch. The mana dissipated a moment later, making me wonder if I’d imagined it, but no.

Still, whether or not my theory was correct, getting an arrow tip through the shield wasn’t going to do it for me. I needed something bigger. With more push.

And I have it, I realized. My mana was still creeping upwards after blazing through so much of it, but it was hardly empty.

It would have to be enough. Every second I waited was another that everyone was bleeding out, and if this didn’t work, I was fully out of ideas.

Really could use that forced feeling of calm right now. The chandelier was still working its literal magic on me, but I still found my heart beating uncomfortably quickly as I rounded the barrier to come face to face with the high priest. Nothing quite as shocking as getting shot in the face, I’m hoping.

With that, I got right up against the shield, leveled the bow directly at the priest’s head, and dumped the entire remainder of my mana into Overload Weapon. Every last drop of it went into the skill. After all, if this didn’t work, what would 1 or 2 mana do for me?

Overcharged with mana, the arrow glowed until it physically hurt to look at. When I felt my mana pool drain dry, I released it, shouting as loudly as I could to add to the shock value.

Come on, come on, come on. Please work! “HAH!”

Even before the light faded, a line of battle text popped up.

You have hit High Priest Ephesis for 1 piercing damage.

When I could see once more, I was greeted by a sight that was at once hopeful and frightening in equal parts. Out of the corner of my eyes, I caught sight of the chains melting away from my companions, coupled with an assortment of startled cries.

That, however, was only the good part of things.

Directly before me sat the priest, his eyes wide open in a look of baffled shock.

The expression was temporary, as he quickly seemed to put everything together. Replacing it was one far sterner, though it didn’t seem to hold any real heat to it. Despite me standing over him, it almost felt as if he were looking down at a child who’d pulled a prank on him. In particular, he didn’t appear worried in the least bit.

Instead, after bringing his eyes to mine, he sighed.

“I truly wish you hadn’t done that,” he said. “I’m afraid you won’t much like the consequences.”