Lilith: Origin of Succubi

"Yeah, this is definitely a teleportation gate," I said as I looked down at it.

"How sure are you?" Morrigan asked.

"I'm sure. I recognize some of the glyphs from the teleportation traps documented in the ritual magic book Sorsette gave me."

Silva raised an eyebrow. "This is a trap?"

I shook my head and repressed a laugh. "No, it's not a trap, but the dungeon uses the basis for ritual magic to power nearly everything inside it. That includes traps, but they also power everything from internal lights, to plants, to water fountains, and even things like the safe rooms."

Torien suddenly looked interested. "Safe rooms are powered by ritual magic? Does that mean they can be recreated?"

"Not easily. There are already a lot of people trying to research the runes and glyphs involved in the safe rooms, but they don't work outside the dungeon, even when copied one for one. There's something else missing, but it's a popular topic of interest since you could theoretically make an entire city the equivalent of a safe room if they could figure it out," I replied.

I opened to an empty page of my endless notebook. "[Create Simple Copy]." The page I had open glowed as the entire teleportation gate appeared on the blank page as if I had spent time drafting it. The complex ritual circle looks like it had been painstakingly recreated with measuring tools. I felt slightly dizzy for a brief moment as a large chunk of my mana pool flooded into the skill ability all at once. Even if the mana cost was a little bit steep, the sheer amount of time saved to get a better copy than I would be willing to work on right now was worth it, without question.

Morrigan glanced over at the notebook. "Was it wise to use that much mana on that?" 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Snapping the book shut, I met Morrigan's eyes. "If we could figure anything out toward creating our own teleportation gates, it could change everything. If we have something even half as effective as this gate looks to be, it would make frontier towns a lot safer and more accessible."

Torien suddenly looked a bit worried. "Spoken like a true [World Traveler]."

I shrugged. "I'll be cautious, but teleportation gates could potentially change logistics and war. Supply lines are harder to cut if all the supplies suddenly appear somewhere else using magic. I'd be surprised if there weren't limitations to this kind of magic, but the potential is huge if we could recreate even part of its utility."

"Why hasn't it been done yet, then?" Raya asked curiously.

"Because it's hard," I said with a laugh. "There are a million reasons why there hasn't been a breakthrough on this, but not for lack of trying. It might be the same as the safe rooms, something missing that makes it all work."

"Most dungeons don't need to use stable gates like this in the first place. Most of them are used in traps," Lori said, cutting in. "That was part of why I thought the necessity of flying for this dungeon was such a strong possibility."

Silva sighed. "I don't care about any of that, not right now at least. Will it be safe for us to travel through it?"

"I mean, from what I can recognize, I don't think it's a trap exactly. It looks like this was an intentional gate with a guardian. It's more like a challenge. That doesn't mean something dangerous won't be on the other side of it, but I don't think the circle itself is intended to be dangerous. Not the same way a normal teleportation trap would be," I replied.

"Okay, that's good. We should still send a forward guard. How do we activate it?" she asked.

Lori glanced at Silva. "Everyone who wants to go on the first trip should stand inside that ring and wait. After a few seconds, it'll transport everyone standing in the ring over if nothing is obstructing the circle on the other side. I've seen something like this in a dungeon before."

"Have you done a lot of dungeon diving?" Torien asked.

"Just a little, and not as a fighter. Let's just say that I've had a 'target' disappear in a dungeon before," Lori said with a grim face.

Torien's expression darkened. It was clear that neither of them wanted to talk about this anymore. As impressed with her aunt as Torien is, I don't think she likes to think about her history as an assassin any more than she did with Silva. Strangely, Morrigan seems to not be as bothered by it as her sister. I'm not entirely sure why.

"Will we be able to come back, once we go through?" Silva asked, ignoring the exchange.

Lori shrugged. "I don't think we'll know unless we try. It's not like the rules surrounding these teleportation gates are widely known, since they're rare."

Silva nodded. "Alright then, I think I should go with Kal'daeryn, Sibyl, and Mimi first. Wait a few minutes and follow us in after. If possible, I'll have Mimi try to return and let you know if it's safe. If they're not, then all three of us will try to return."

"Shouldn't I go too?" I asked.

Silva shook her head. "After what happened on our way to this island, I think it would be better for morale if you stayed in a safer position." She held up a hand just as I was bristling with annoyance. "Not that I think you're incapable of protecting yourself, it's just that the earlier scare hit some of the others hard."

Morrigan glanced away awkwardly.

I sighed. "Fine. You go first, but I'll come with the second group. If you aren't able to come back, there's no way of knowing whether or not you'll be in danger on the other side."

Raya frowned down at the gate on the floor. "What would stop this from just... dropping us off a cliff or something?" she asked.

Lori shook her head. "I don't think it will activate if the other side isn't functioning, and just generally speaking, I've never heard of a dungeon trying to trick people with things an adventurer activates themselves. Even something as simple as a switch activating a pit trap that they're standing on is just something that doesn't happen."

Nelly cleared her throat. "It is said that the dungeons are created by Felketh, the god of strife and adversity, to make people stronger. A dungeon that kills you for engaging with it wouldn't promote growth. That would make people refuse to venture within them at all. Dungeons are meant to be fair, even if they do not feel that way all of the time."

"Traps are fair?" Morrigan asked incredulously.

Nelly nodded. "Traps serve as a trial of preparation and perception. The early traps in a dungeon rarely kill, and once you've gone deep enough for them to be deadly, you are expected to have adapted to dealing with them by that point. If a dungeon were to kill someone for walking through the first door, it would hardly promote any growth from overcoming adversity. While not every dungeon starts at the same difficulty, they usually ramp up as you progress through them for the same reason."

Silva cleared her throat. "Back on topic, your theology session suggests that we shouldn't be too worried about going through this, then?"

Nelly nervously fidgeted. "Well... I don't think you need to worry about using the gate itself, but being wary of enemies on the other side is still prudent."

Silva nodded. "Fine. Then, like I said before, Me, Kal'daeryn, and Mimi in the first group. We'll try to send someone back, otherwise, everyone else may as well come through at the same time, ready for a fight. Wait a while to see if we return, but no more than a quarter bell."

Kal'daeryn drew her sword and stood next to Silva as she prepared to go. I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't go with the first group, but that was alright. I could understand where Silva was coming from, even if I didn't fully agree with the idea.

The three of them stepped into the circle, and after a couple of beats, they disappeared. All of us gripped our weapons as we waited. There was a certain anxiety in the air, but I was relieved when Mimi returned only a couple of minutes later. Rather than look relaxed though, she was in a hurry.

"Guys! There's a fight going on over there, but it's manageable. Just come right away!"

At once, all of us stood back in the center of the transportation gate, and the world flashed in a mind-bending distortion that gave me vertigo. Now on the other side, Silva was holding a horde of small shadow demons in a doorway. I stepped forward and promptly threw up [Light Domain], which immediately began to suppress the shadows. Once that was up, I cast [Arms of Light] on her spear to enhance it.

Silva was initially only holding the horde of shadow monsters at the doorway, but with my support, she began to proceed through the corridor while pushing the horde back. Sibyl and Kal'daeryn took up positions beside them, and I cast my [Arms of Light] on them and myself as well. I funneled more mana into my blade using [Magic Edge], which synergized well with my [Light Domain]. These enemies haven't been very threatening to us for a while, but now they were completely trivial for us to dispatch. My [Light Domain] essentially froze their movements long enough for us to effortlessly cut them down.

Our backline didn't even bother spending their mana to help us with the trivial enemies. The only one who helped us was Morrigan, since she still benefited from her karma ability improving her mana pool with each kill. I was such a large font of light magic that she was able to redirect some of the wasted mana into additional attacks. Until recently, light magic wasn't worth her time, but in my [Light Domain] against shadow-aligned enemies, using the light mana was by far the best option. Each missile of light she impaled the shadows with burst instantly, and she was quickly firing off more than four a second.

Eventually, we found ourselves in an outdoor courtyard. We were in some kind of ruins now, but in the distance, we could still see other pillar islands nearby. It wouldn't be difficult to orient ourselves in the right direction as soon as we finished off this small horde of shadow demons. Up above us were thousands of banshees, but it was as if we were invisible to them in here. They were more interested in flowing in the opposite direction of the islands we could see, presumably toward the dungeon entrance they were still trying to escape through.

"We make our stand here. We'll kill them till they stop coming," Silva said.

"What if they don't stop coming!?" Raya said in mild panic.

"They'll stop coming!" Silva said firmly.

I thought better of continuing the argument and focused more on fighting. The upkeep of my spells left me just over the negative side of my magic regeneration. It wasn't bad, but I would slowly be losing mana over time. This would be an endurance fight, so maintaining my abilities was still the best use of my mana. I would dispel some of my [Arms of Light] if I got close to running out.

Like that, we fought for the better part of a bell. The swarm of shadow monsters spilling into the courtyard felt endless, but they weren't much of a threat. With my light magic buffs, the shadow monsters were trivial to kill, but there were so many of them that it was a constant effort not to get overwhelmed. Luckily, we had a lot of experience fighting these particular enemies by now, and with our substantial advantages, the fight finally began to slow. What once felt like endless waves turned into a stream before turning into a trickle, until they were all dead.

I was thankful that the monsters dissolved into nothingness as we killed them, because I was sure their bodies would be piled up past the walls of the courtyard, had the corpses stuck around. I released most of my mana, leaving up only [Light Domain]. The one spell by itself didn't eat up all of my mana regeneration, but it did slow it to a trickle. Still, we didn't fully know how safe we were yet, so I wanted to stay on the safe side. There was just one thing I was still interested in...

"Hey guys, before we leave this place, do you mind if I go back and make another copy of the teleportation gate from this side?" I asked.

Silva laughed. "Fine, go ahead. We can hold this courtyard for now, just don't take too long. Everyone else, let's figure out a turn order to rest. Mimi, why don't you go with her, just in case?"

"Okay!" Mimi said happily.

I think I had enough mana to squeeze out one more [Create Simple Copy] spell without emptying myself out...