After the arrival of the other guilds helping in the effort to save the captive hostages and overall raiding the dungeon, planning and supplementary training was performed. While the guild masters along with their champions discuss and even argue with on how they approach not only raiding the dungeon, but also getting past the tree-covered area guarded by cultists, those outside the meeting are preparing for whatever situation they may come across. In particular, Jeffrey was teaching Anya many intermediate and a very small number advanced level Offensive and Defensive Super-Techniques, so she can have a considerable amount of options on defending herself and others.

Meanwhile, Jason and his crew were maintaining their equipment such as cleaning, sharpening, and polishing. Many angels were worried about the possibility of the presence of major demons and so, they made an earnest request to the J-Crew to have their weapons sanctified in order to defeat such vile creatures. To give further context and explain in (relatively) brief detail, here’s what the demon hierarchy was:

Level 0: Fallen

Level 1: Lesser

Level 2: Common

Level 3: Greater (also called Major)

Level 4: Archdemon

Level 5: Infernal Deity

As you can see, the higher the demon’s level was, the stronger and more difficult it is to defeat. Those that were Level 0 – 2 can be defeated with ease, albeit Commons tend to be rather difficult to the inexperienced; however, those that are Level 3 and especially higher were a different story when it comes to dealing with them head on. They require holy weapons in order to be defeated and even then, some of them are rather unpredictable in the way they functioned and operated; many of them are extremely dangerous as they were capable of casting devastating spells and inflicting horrible curses on others. Archdemons in particular were essentially world-destroyers; while it was true that a group of higher order Greater Demons could pose a threat to a nation and more, all it took was one Archdemon to shake the entirety of El Mundo to its very core.

As for Infernal Deities: they were so extreme in terms of causing unspeakable and unimaginable destruction, that it’s best they’re left unexplained for the time being.

With that minor bit of exposition out the way, let’s return back to the main event.

After the meeting between guilds had concluded, the prelude of the raid (via laying siege to the surrounding area) had begun. The unified army used various field tactics like hiding and ambushing, diversions, baiting and switching, and stealth killing cultists who are capable of healing, buffing, and many others. These strategies had in effect severely weakened and even cut off all possible support to the side of the cultists.

When everything relating to the outside of the temple was dealt with, everybody involved proceeded to head inside the dungeon. There, the army was split up into divisions and subdivisions tasked with different purposes and jobs like disabling traps, retrieving loot, gathering information, rescuing civilians, and the most prominent of them all, the neutralization of any hostiles.

The J-Crew were part of the last things that were mentioned, Anya was with the rescue operators in their mission to save civilians, especially of the wolf-child’s village and her own family. Jason, Lilly, Antonio, and Emmanuel were kept busy slaying horrid creatures, like ogres, trolls, cyclops, corrupted knights, and many others. They were gaining lots of Experience Points, so they found it best to keep going.

After some more monster slaying and the gathering of valuable treasure, the J-Crew arrived in a rather large room. It appeared that the purpose of this place in the dungeon was to be the of worship towards some obscure, unknown, and potentially false god; in the realm of the arcane, this room was also used for hexing rituals and brand curses to those who betrayed the specific group that was using this temple as a base of operations going back centuries, if not a millennium. Overall, the room had a rather haunting and oppressive atmosphere to it, but given what the temple in general was used for, it was pretty much unsurprising that this part of the dungeon existed.

Suddenly, Emmanuel spotted a person in a cage; it was on a solid platform with a flight of stairs leading up to it.

“Boss, there’s someone inside a cage over there!” Emmanuel informed Jace with urgency.

The knight spotted the captor as well, “Yeah, you’re right; let’s help them out now!” he commanded.

The two ran up the stairs together to investigate. Upon closer inspection, they discovered an unconscious girl laying on the cold hard ground; unfortunately, Jason was unable to obtain a key during the raiding and monster slaying they’ve conducted.

“Damn, I don’t have anything to use on the padlock.” grumbled Jason.

“Don’t worry boss, I have just the thing for this moment.” Manny stated, assuring help.

The fencer took out a small metal rod shaped like a skeleton key and a pick made with the same material. Emmanuel, with a steady hand and wit, proceeded to tamper with the padlock until it clicked open; finally, Jace opened the cage door and took her out of her prison with the help of Manny. The knight attempted to wake her by gently shaking her, but there was no response, indicating unconsciousness. Alarmed, Jason took out a glass bottle containing a potion that could nullify status effects; the color of the liquid was light green. He opened the prisoner’s mouth, and poured it down her throat until there was no more; he then assisted her at swallowing it.

Right then and there, the female captive snapped wide awake and desperately gasped for air as it filled her lungs. She then gave out some nasty coughs due to her breathing so quickly and suddenly after regaining consciousness.

“Whoa, whoa, easy there!” Jason attempted to soothe.

Due to the fact that the prisoner has been freed from captivity, she quickly calmed down. Appearance-wise, the girl looked awfully cute. She had hair with two tones of colors: black on the outside, cerulean on the inside. Her eye color was like that of a lime, complexion of skin bearing a similarity to milk chocolate; she had a petite stature, and a slim body shape. The girl was draped in a tattered dress and had an arcane seal tattooed on her right arm. The potion Jason gave her did wonders to her physical condition; not only did it restore consciousness, but it also reinvigorated her body, bringing in newfound stamina and life.

“Wow, thanks for saving me.” appreciated the former prisoner.

“You’re welcome,” Jace responded positively, “So what’s your name?” he asked.

“Tamiel Jenta; you can call me Tammy if you like.” the girl revealed.

Suddenly, Tammy felt a sharp pain in the back of her head; it was so great, that she fell down to her knees.

“What’s wrong?” the knight asked with great concern. He then notices the tattoo on her right arm was glowing, giving off a dark red color.

“Shit, these cultists are the worst!” Tamiel said in frustration, “Look, long story short: in order to prevent me from escaping or causing a revolt, they branded me and others with a curse mark that prevents me from using or letting me regenerate my mana.” she explained.

“Then how do you get rid of it?”

“You can’t. Unless you’re someone that specializes in the removal of curses like a shaman, I’m afraid this thing will be stuck on me for an entire year.” the girl stated, in an unfortunate tone.

All hope of restoring Tammy seemed lost. However, Jason vividly remembered the voice that spoke to him during the battle when he fought those two armored beings with Lilly. That instilled him with a certain feeling, sort of an ethereal epiphany, that gave him this feeling of refusing to back down, even when the odds were against him. He wasn’t about to let this slide and have his newfound ally be put at a serious disadvantage.

“I think I can remove it,” Jason offered, “Somewhere deep down inside me, I have the power to do it.” he said.

Tamiel raised an eyebrow in doubt at Jace’s proposition. Just by looking at him and the things he was equipped with, he looked more like an individual that was oriented and possibly geared for martial combat and those related to it, rather than someone that studied magic and mysticism. Still, by showing that he has confidence in his abilities, she won’t stop him from trying.

“Alright, go ahead.” Tammy agreed with slight hesitation. She then presented her arm with the seal to him.

The knight latched onto her arm. Soon, a green aura radiated from his hand; reacting to the context of the situation, like being used on a curse mark, the color of the aura shifted from green to blue. A small flash of bright light appeared for a split-second before disappearing. Jason took his hand off Tammy’s arm and low and behold, the tattoo was gone; it’s almost as if it was never there in the first place.

“Wow… that was incredible!” praised Tamiel while in awe.

Jason smiled in response. Then suddenly, the knight heard an audible notification coming from his tablet. He took it out of his pouch and found out something interesting: he gained a new ability and its name was Fakir’s Forgiveness. This ability in particular allowed users, for a maximum of four times a day, to dispel curses. As it stood, it was at Level 2, meaning that it could only get rid of low to medium-level curses. However, the more our hero uses it, the better and efficient it becomes.

Even though Jason found it awesome that he got a power-up, he also had this newfound feeling of responsibility. It seemed that the more abilities he gained, the more responsibility and even burden was added onto him. Let’s be honest: if you’re capable of firing giant energy beams, you may deal a lot of damage to your enemies, but you also run the risk of hurting others and in general inflict collateral damage, even if it’s accidental. In effect and to put simply: you can’t screw around. Or to be fair, that’s what Jason thought to himself.

Moving on from that tangent, with the seal removed, Tammy could self-regenerate her mana without any sort of trouble and did just that. Wanting to get rid of her tatters, she closed her eyes and concentrated; her whole body was surrounded by an azure light. Replacing her damaged garbs was attire that made the spellcaster somewhat formal looking: a white short-sleeved button-up shirt with a black waist coat over it, a blue pleated mini-skirt with a utility belt complete with helpful tools and items, and for footwear, a pair of black combat boots. Topping off for Tamiel’s wardrobe was this awesome witch hat she wore on top of her head.

“Man, you look pretty snazzy with that get-up on.” Jason commented.

“Thanks.” the female mage responded positively.

Then out of nowhere, everybody present could feel a rather violent rumbling beneath the ground resembling an earthquake; soon it stopped. Then right after that, all passageways that lead into the room were forcefully blocked off by a dark purple force field.

The shaking returned; this time, Lilly sensed that this rumbling isn’t a natural phenomenon relating to how the world functions. Instead, it was coming from a giant creature burrowing through the ground. Jace also detected the creature as well, but sensed that it was underneath the platform he and his newfound ally were standing on; it was ready to attack.

“Tammy, Manny, move!” Jason commanded.

Jason, Lilly, and Emmanuel dashed off the platform and gracefully glided down the stairs. The platform and stairs were smashed into smithereens, leaving behind piles of broken stone and a giant cloud made of dust and ash. When it settled, a gigantic monster resembling a king cobra with horns appeared before the group; this creature in particular was the notorious Emperor Cobra.

What the J-Crew faced was a special variant: it had a thick, bony plate covering half of its head and the entirety of its face. It signified that this kind of emperor cobra had adapted to living in mountainous and craggy regions, like where the Temple of Geoise was located at. In particular, it had the ability to burrow through solid ground and smash rocks with ease.

Seeing that this monster was not backing down nor was it interested in doing so, the J-Crew got out their weapons. Tamiel, joining in the fray, summoned her staff that she stored within a pocket dimension.

Let the battle begin...