A Cleric's Chronicle of Rwby's Remnant

by Phoenix4Lord

A fan of RWBY is reincarnated with a D&D-esque Gamer System, and he's got lofty goals. He is going to stop the fall of Beacon, defeat Salem, kill the Brother Gods, make sure Arkos happens, and reunite with his sister... Probably not in that order, but who knows, he is going to screw the timeline up so bad, that it could happen in any order. Warning:Suggestive language and swearing.

7. Tango in the Tarantula Temple

AN: So, it's been a little bit. Sorry about that. To put it simply, I've been dealing with some medical issues which have become progressively worse over the years, to the point that I was sometimes continuously sick for multiple months on end. I've recently undergone surgery to treat that, but the recovery hasn't been easy either, hence the void in activity. I have no idea if this will end up fixing all the issues I've been having, or not, but I'm optimistic about it.

I do hope that you all are doing well as well, and it means so much to me that yall have stuck around during the months where I've gone no-contact while recovering.

If you'd like to support my stories, or view the reduced-rolls version of this story, you can find me at P… /PhoenixOverlord. You don't have to give anything, everything on there is free to view.

Some good news! I now have a Beta reader! Meet Old man of the mountain!

Review Responses:

raxon1221: I'm tempted to say that I can't tell you as it would be a spoiler, but the honest reason is that I'm not certain. If he were to acquire a relic it would most likely be either the sword or the crown, but I don't want to rely on anything like that, until Rooster Teeth actually shows us what they do. Thanks for your review!

RC2002: Thank you, I'm glad to be back too. Though I have a feeling fans of my other story might be a bit miffed I keep focusing on the golden child instead of the other ones. Thanks for your review!

Mather12: Thanks for your kind words. I'm lucky to have great players as well! Thank you as well for your comment on Mowgli not feeling like a standard self-insert. I made him a merge of two souls so that I could get away with a bit of the personality that would shine through from living on Earth, but with the native soul present in order to explain his common sense and habitual nature when moving about the world. Yeah, I had thought about doing a regular gamer story first, but I realized that D&D would make things way easier from both a writing and reading perspective, especially to those already familiar with the game. Thank you for your review!

MultiversalCosms: Thanks, I returned for all the readers like you who leave reviews that inspire me to keep writing. Yeah, I'll admit that while I did leave it up to a vote, I was rooting for Weiss, purely from a storyteller's perspective on the interesting scenarios possible with it. Yep, its quite therapeutic to write a story about arrogant people in power being taken down a notch. Makes sense with the whole 'Art imitating life and life imitating art' thing. Thank you for your review!

bankleo305: Yep, becoming a god of a fragmented reality, is something that Mowgli is going to have to come to terms with. The implications are explored briefly in this chapter but will be the main focus of the next one. Thank you for your review!

Qazzio: Thank you, that means a lot to hear! I hope you enjoy this chapter too! Thank you for your review!

Randy: Thank you for your praise, and you have no idea how glad I am that you recognized the unique nature of this story, as that was much of the driving force behind writing this. I wanted to subvert many of the common tropes of these stories, and offer an alternative, that shows both the good and bad of not following the status quo. Thank you for your review!

Noahbadoah: I'm really glad that you liked the chapter! Its great to hear that you like Noémie; I wanted to have a female deuteragonist that was cool but didn't fall into the whole 'Strong Female' trope that Hollywood keeps messing up with Mary Sues. I had fun developing the Aether system which will get its proper debut and explanation in the next chapter. As for the Maiden powers, I'm ecstatic that I was successfully able to pull off Mowgli stealing them, without it seeming like a shoehorned plot point. Thank you for your review!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or D&D, they are properties of Rooster Teeth and Wizards' of the Coast respectively

---

~Burning Pass, Vacuo~

Named for the large spikes of Fire Dust that once erupted from the ground across the expanse that the pass winded through, the Burning Pass was but a shadow of its former glory.

The once fertile grassland dotted with large clusters of Fire Dust crystalize was now a barren waste of desert occasionally marked by the scars of mining activity from decades prior.

The riverbed that used to fertilize the land and allow for small vessels to drift across the continent from Vacuo city to Coquina was now dryer than the sun bleached bones of the animals that had perished in their search for water.

The convoy of APCs, Humvees, and other military vehicles made their way through the wasteland of desert as they followed along the path of the river's remains.

The Humvee in the middle of the pack, flanked by two ATVs beside it, housed the VIPs of the escort.

Inside the Humvee, General Amanda De Coquina, Ambassador Mowgli Belladonna, and newly hired PR Specialist Noémie Alvarado resided.

Mowgli had spent the first hour of the ride attuning to the Ring of Warmth he had gained from the quest earlier that day. Thankfully it wasn't anything to overtly obvious and he merely had to focus his mind on the ring while he wore it.

Ring of Warmth: While wearing this ring, you have resistance to cold damage. In addition, you and everything you wear and carry are unharmed by temperatures as low as -50 degrees Fahrenheit.

…

Resistance: Take half damage of the respective type.

"Alright, now I need a quote from someone famous for your profile." Noémie informed Mowgli as she continued setting up all the social media accounts that would be managing his public image.

"Uh…" Mowgli thought for a moment as he paused his efforts in writing a letter to his parents. Eventually his mind cleared enough to answer, "Our greatest ability as people is not to change the world, but to change ourselves."

Noémie scrunched her brows together, "Interesting quote, who is it by?"

"Ghandi." Mowgli answered as he returned to his letter.

"Who is Ghandi?" Noémie asked, her confusion not alleviated by his answer.

It was now Mowgli's turn to look at her oddly, wondering how she didn't know who Ghandi was… Suddenly it clicked, "Right, uh, you wouldn't know him. Kind of a niche author I read from once. Lets just go with 'The coldest of apathy can burn as hot as the fires of hatred.' by Oswald Drake, the last king of Vale."

Deception Check: 8 (Rolled) + 2 (Chr. Mod.) = 10

Success!

Noémie nodded, seemingly satisfied with his answer, and returned to her phone. Yet, it was only a few moments later that she gave a quick grunt of annoyance and spoke once more, "We can't use that one either, Valean Councilor Winchester already uses the same one, and you and I both know his attitude towards the Faunus."

Sighing, Mowgli thought once more, before clarifying with Noémie, "Does it have to be a famous quote or famous person, or just one that sounds interesting?"

Noémie shrugged, "I guess not, most people use famous quotes, but if you got a different one you want to use, then that's up to you."

"Alright then," Mowgli slowly nodded as if agreeing with himself, "how about: 'Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why we call it the present.'?"

Slowly, both his aunt and his new employee turned to face him, both seeming quite impressed with the quote. Eventually, Amanda voiced the question that the pair were silently asking, "Where did you hear that?"

"A wise old tortoise Faunus told me it before he passed on." Mowgli lied easily.

Deception Check: 14 (Rolled) + 2 (Chr. Mod.) = 16

Success!

Slowly, Noémie nodded and began typing it into her Scroll, "Do you know his name?"

"Only his first name, Oogway." Mowgli told her, as he reminisced on one of his favorite films.

Inspiration Gained! (For choosing a wise quote and paying respect to the Greats that came before you!)

…

Inspiration: You may only have a maximum of One inspiration at a time. It can be used to give you Advantage on any roll.

Relieved that he had finished up with that, Mowgli went to return to his writing, but was interrupted once more, this time by his aunt.

"So, I know a little bit from your father's letters, but I'd rather hear it directly; what's my favorite nephew been up to?" The General asked him as she simultaneously looked over a series of reports on her large tablet Scroll.

"First of all, I'm your only nephew, so nice try there. Secondly, not much," Mowgli easily answered, "I've just continued to learn from my father and done my own research on the methods of the rulers of history." He stopped and tapped his pen against his chin for a few moments, thinking, "Oh, and I've also been completely lied to about what you've been doing for the past few years."

Amanda merely gave a chuffing laugh as she answered, "Sorry nephew, I wanted it to be a surprise for you. I felt it was fitting since it was because of you in the first place."

Now thoroughly distracted from his writing, Mowgli turned to his aunt, "Excuse me…? What did I do?"

"You probably wouldn't remember; you were only nine at the time." Amanda answered fondly as she slowly plucked her reading glasses from the bridge of her nose and turned to Mowgli.

Setting his pen and paper aside, Mowgli looked deeper into his aunts' eyes as they began to fill with remembrance of days long past.

"It was only a few months after your sister had… left." The pause clearly wasn't lost on Noémie, whose typing slowed to a halt as Amanda began to speak.

"I was still working as a member of the Whitefang, now an enforcer since we had militarized with your fathers' stepping down as High Leader." Amanda continued slowly, and the guilt in her voice increased as she went on. "My sister- Your mother and I, well, we got into a bit of a fight. I had dedicated so many years to your parents' cause, and the way that they gave it up so quickly hurt. It made me feel like the time I gave up for it wasn't worth anything, so I got stubborn and wanted to stay with the Fang, to make it worth something in the end, even if it wasn't something I could be proud of…"

"You didn't though… You made something of yourself far greater than what you could have ever done there." Mowgli reassured her.

Amanda smiled at that, "That means the most coming from you nephew."

"Why?" Mowgli posited to her.

"Like I said nephew, you're responsible for this." Amanda repeated, "I was all but set on walking away, but then your mother gave me the ultimatum. She told me in no uncertain terms that if I chose to stay with the Fang, she wouldn't let me ever get within 100 feet of you. Yet, when I was leaving for possibly the last time, you asked me a simple question in retrospect, but important all the same."

"What did I ask you?" Mowgli asked as he did his best to think back to the last time he had seen her, but nothing came.

Amanda shrugged in a nonchalant manner, "You asked me if I'd ever visit you again, and you did it with the most innocent eyes, that… I just had to say yes. As much as I valued equality for the Faunus, I valued our family more so, and I made my decision that day."

Mowgli was quite touched by her words and wanted to talk with his aunt more on them, however the wholesome moment was interrupted just as quickly as it began.

Passive Perception: Success

Suddenly, deep in his skull, Mowgli felt it.

MzMzmZmZmzM!

Ripppppp!

A deep resonating and fluctuating hum followed by a great tearing sound pierced his ears, and Mowgli grunted slightly in aggravation as the sound assaulted him.

Turning, Mowgli saw that Noémie had also noticed it, and was now looking around with widened as, before they rapidly darted to her hands, as if expecting something to happen.

But it never came.

She looked lost for a moment, before clarity reemerged and her eyes swiveled to Mowgli.

Mowgli quickly came to the same conclusion as her, and quickly turned to his own hands, waiting for them to burst into flames or start releasing volleys of bladed ice.

Suddenly, like that feeling when you put all your weight behind a door and the latch finally clicks as you turn the handle, Mowgli felt it.

He felt the buzzing hum reacting to the Summer Maiden's powers deep in his soul, and the powers reacting to the hum in turn.

With great mental strength, Mowgli pushed back against the magic, and tried to force it to stay dormant.

Wisdom Saving Throw: 18 (Rolled) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) + 3 (Prof. Bonus) = 25

Success!

Thankfully, he was able to shut the proverbial door on the powers, but the strain and difficulty that he experienced in doing so, even with such a high roll told him in no uncertain terms how difficult it must have been for Noémie to try to hold them back.

Amanda clearly noticed both Mowgli's and Noémie's odd behavior, and commented on it, "Is something wrong?"

Turning towards the origin of the humming, Mowgli saw a small structure nestled in the desert wastes.

The temple, Mowgli realized, was made of large grey stones that contrasted heavily with the surrounding sands, a testament to the efforts made in its construction by whatever civilization came before.

Mowgli pointed to it, "Aunty, what is that?"

Peering out into the horizon, General Amanda De Coquina identified the building, "That...? That's just an old pyramid that the old kingdom of Vacuo used for religious ceremonies."

Looking at it once more, Mowgli could see that it was in the style of most Mesoamerican Pyramids that could be found in Mexico.

History Check: 4 (Rolled) + 2 (Int. Mod.) + 3 (Prof. Bonus) = 9

Failure!

Grunting in annoyance at the failed check, Mowgli quickly warned his aunt, "Aunty, stop the convoy, now."

"Mowgli...?" Amanda looked concerned for him, worried he might be coming down with some sickness, "It's just an old temple… What's wrong?"

"I'm not worried about the temple; I'm worried about what's crawling out of it." Mowgli corrected her.

Appearing thoroughly perturbed, Amanda looked out the window towards the temple once more. Only this time, her eyes widened in astonishment.

A mass of hundreds of black blurs began to crawl out of the openings of the temple, and with speed far betraying their size, they began their sprint towards the convoy.

The General rapidly, but with careful deliberateness unhooked her walkie-talkie from her belt and brought it to her lips.

"We have incoming at 9 o'clock, just out of the old temple. At least 3,000 targets and counting; moving in with an ETA of two minutes. Reposition the convoy on the other side of the river basin and prepare for contact." Amanda ordered succinctly.

Suddenly, Amanda turned and banged her fist twice on the metal sliding door that separated the passengers from the driver of the Humvee.

Almost immediately afterwards the sound of sliding metal filled the room as the window opened. "Yes General?" The soldier on the other side acknowledged.

"Your sole priority is to keep the VIP alive! You know the route to the capital; back-up should meet you half-way there!" Amanda barked the command to the man, before turning to Mowgli and Noémie.

Being able to see his aunt's eyes informed Mowgli of how terrified she was, far more than his powers ever could have.

It didn't make sense to him, she was the General of an entire nation, and they were a convoy of at least 250 trained soldiers, some with and some without Aura.

Mowgli slowly came to the same realization that Noémie was as well. They were both civilians, used to the stories of singular Hunters taking out entire hordes of Grimm.

But those were stories… This was the real world.

The world where a pack of Grimm was usually at most a few dozen. Not a few thousand.

Wisdom Saving Throw: 4 (Rolled) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) + 3 (Prof. Bonus) = 11

Failure

Condition Inflicted: Frightened

Frightened Condition: A frightened creature has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line of sight. Nor can they willingly move closer to the source of their fear.

It was as Mowgli came out of that realization that he felt a slight pressure on his brow. Looking up, he saw that it was his aunt laying a parting kiss as she gave him a broken smile before rushing out of the Humvee to guide her soldiers.

Mowgli had no moment to even react before he felt the vehicle he was in, kick into high gear as they began to flee the encroaching pack of Grimm.

No… Not a pack, Mowgli realized. It was a nest.

Mowgli suddenly heard the driver begin to speak to himself as he drove, "What the fuck is going on? Different types of spider Grimm hate each other, but that horde has everything under the Light Damned Sun! Withering Widows, Treacherous Trappers, Soul spinners…"

The man's voice trailed off as he focused on driving. Meanwhile, the horde of spider Grimm of all types came like a wave over the rolling hills of sand.

Suddenly, the convoy opened fire and a wall of ammunition was upon the encroaching Grimm, mowing them down with incredible efficiency. Yet, there seemed to be no end to the lines of Grimm walking over the dissolving bodies of their comrades.

Noémie meanwhile was yelling at the driver, "Why aren't they fleeing as well?! They could fire at them as they retreated!"

The man shook his head, "Driving across the desert guns-blazing is guaranteed to do one thing, and one thing only: Attract every Grimm in a twenty mile radius around you, including Leviathan Class Grimm. The General knows what she's doing. That river basin is the only advantageous position available for 200 miles."

"We can help!" Noémie tried to argue.

Once more he shook his head, "Maybe you could, maybe you couldn't; either way, there's no way that we can risk him." As he said that, the man tilted his head at Mowgli.

'Right,' Mowgli realized, holding his hand over his heart as he breathed in a rapid panic over the situation, 'I'm supposed to lead a nation of over 200,000 people someday. If I die in Vacuo, then there will be questions asked and answers demanded internationally.'

'Still, can I really just run away from this?' Mowgli thought; however the decision was rapidly taken out of his hands.

Off to the side, Mowgli saw a few of the Grimm break off from the main pack and start chasing after them.

The soldier driving the Humvee quickly turned the vehicle to try to create a greater distance between them. Yet, Mowgli immediately felt that something was very off.

Suddenly, like a curtain being swept open, a massive spider slipped into existence right beside them as it let out a bellowing screeching charge and smashed into the side of the Humvee.

"FUCK!" The driver swore as they suddenly were on only two-wheels and began to tumble over into the empty dried-up river.

Mowgli had no idea where his screaming ended, and the other occupants' ended. Either way, it was a least two full turns before the vehicle finally came to rest at the bottom of the gulley.

Damage Taken: 9 Bludgeoning = 9 Damage

"AGH!" Mowgli shouted in pain. Slowly bringing his hand to his head, he quickly pulled it away with a wince as he felt his hands become wet with blood.

"Mowgli...? That you?" A voice asked from somewhere to his left.

"Noémie, I'm here." Mowgli answered as his eyes slowly adjusted and his foggy head cleared. As the adrenaline began to course through his system, Mowgli took a deep breath and steadied himself mentally.

Wisdom Saving-Throw: 3 (Rolled) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) + 3 (Prof. Bonus) = 10

Failure

Only, for his earlier fear to both remain intact and redouble in strength.

Feeling something touch his shoulder, Mowgli jumped in surprise as best as he could from where he was fastened to his seat.

"Its me." Noémie told him as Mowgli felt her slowly move over to him.

Turning, Mowgli was finally able to see her. She appeared a little roughed up in appearance, but thankfully uninjured, her Aura having taken the impact for her.

"You alright?" She asked steadily, looking him in the eyes.

An Ally Has Used the Help Action!

Advantage Gained!

…

Wisdom Saving Throw: 15 (Rolled 14 and 15 with Advantage) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) + 3 (Prof. Bonus) = 22

Success!

Condition Removed: Frightened

Feeling his breath even out, Mowgli nodded at her, "Yeah, I'm alright."

"What do we do?" Noémie asked as she peered out the thankfully still intact windows of the APC.

"The driver?" Mowgli asked, ignoring her question.

Noémie merely shook her head. Mowgli instinctually looked over to where the cockpit was, only to see the windshield splattered with blood and the driver's broken arm draped through the small window, blooding pooling at his fingertips.

Mowgli saw her about to say something, but suddenly held up his finger as he smelled the air and listened to their surroundings.

Perception Check: 16 (Rolled 2 and 16 with Advantage) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) + 6 (Expertise Bonus) = 26

Great Success!

"We need to get out of here now!" Mowgli shouted as he quickly ripped the bracelet off of the dead man's arm.

"What! Why?" Noémie asked, yet she thankfully did so as she already began to push open the door that was now facing the sky.

"I can smell and hear the ruptured gas tank, and we've got about ten seconds before the voodoo-bullshit teleporting spider is on us!" Mowgli answered as he unbuckled himself and was quickly pulled upwards and out by Noémie.

Adjusting his eyes to the glare of the desert, Mowgli stepped down from the Humvee, and saw their assailant slowly making its way down the steep slope of the dry river. It was nearly at the bottom of the incline, and Mowgli now had a far better view of what it was.

It was large, maybe twelve feet tall and equally as wide as it skittered across the sand. The spider's color was nothing like that of a Grimm, being a mixture of sky-blues and icy whites.

'That's because it isn't a Grimm.' Mowgli realized, as he recognized the creature from his time as a DM. "FUCK! Fuck! Fuck!" Mowgli swore in rapid succession.

"What now?!" Noémie asked, seeming thoroughly done with the day already.

"It's a Phase-Spider! It can jump in and out of existence whenever it wants!" Mowgli answered as he raised his crossbow at the monstrosity.

Initiative: 20 (Rolled) +4 (Initiative Bonus) = 24

First in Turn Order

"Fuckin' waste of a Natural Twenty." Mowgli lamented as he fired on the dimensional invader, ignoring the weird look he got from Noémie in response to his words.

Ranged Attack: 3 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) + 2 (Prof. Bonus) = 7

Failure

…

-1x Crossbow Bolt

Mowgli mentally cursed as the Phase Spider threw up a barbed leg to block the attack.

Bang!

Wincing at the sound of the gunpowder, Mowgli saw that Noémie had unslung her rifle from her shoulder and taken a shot as well at the encroaching spider.

Her shot thankfully hit.

"SCREE!" The Phase spider shouted angrily as it suddenly was missing three of its legs and a good chunk of its left flank.

Seemingly fed-up with being shot at, the Phase Spider suddenly shimmered out of existence.

"Is it…?" Noémie asked, her voice trailing off, as she scanned their surroundings.

"No." Mowgli quickly answered her unfinished question, "It's still there, just on a separate level of existence to us."

"Sure, that makes sense." Noémie sarcastically agreed.

"Welcome to my life-" Mowgli suddenly cut-off as he found his vision filled with beady black eyes and dripping fangs.

Damage Taken: 3 Piercing = 3 Damage

…

Constitution Saving Throw: 13 (Rolled) + 2 (Con. Mod) = 15

Success!

Damage Halved!

…

Damage Taken: 15 Poison / 2 (Successful Save!) = 7 Damage

…

"Suck my Sacred Flame Bitch!" Mowgli screamed as he threw his hands forward into the Phase Spiders eyes.

Cantrip: Sacred Flame

Damage Given: 4 Radiant (1D8 Rolled) x Vulnerability = 8 Damage

Screeching in pain as the radiant purple fire melted its eyes and soon its brain, the Phase spider wobbled slightly before collapsing like a puppet with broken strings.

Enemy Defeated: 2,300 Exp (Phase Spider) / 2 Combatants = 1,150Exp Gained

Mowgli didn't have any time to celebrate their victory as Noémie suddenly let out a groan of pain and held her forehead.

"You alright?" Mowgli asked as he rested a hand on her back, ready to catch her if she collapsed.

"Yeah…?" Noémie answered, unsure, "I… It's weird, I think I feel better than usual actually."

"The Exp…" Mowgli whispered under his breath. Shaking his head to clear his mind, Mowgli quickly ran over to the Humvee, "Help me, quick!"

Reaching the Humvee, the sound and heat of flames under the hood were obvious now. Mowgli quickly yanked open the door on the front right and peered in.

Hearing Noémie's feet behind him, Mowgli started crawling inside towards the man's body. Reaching it, unbuckling him, and grabbing him by the shoulders, Mowgli instructed Noémie, "Help me pull!"

A second later, Mowgli felt her hands grab onto his legs and start pulling him out.

An Ally Has Used the Help Action!

Advantage Gained!

…

Strength Check: 10 (Rolled 7 and 10 with Advantage) + 0 (Str. Mod.) = 10

Success!

Slowly but surely, they retrieved the man's body and quickly started dragging it away from the Humvee.

Not a moment too soon it seemed as suddenly…

BOOM!

The inside of the Humvee was rapidly filled with flames as the glass of the windows shattered outward.

"Mowgli, I know its disrespectful, but I don't think we can take this body with us!" Noémie argued, misinterpreting his efforts.

Grabbing from his pocket the bracelet he had pilfered from the man earlier; Mowgli inspected the gleaming diamonds studded across it.

"It's not enough." He realized, and quickly turned to Noémie, spotting the diamond earrings on her lobes and choker wrapped around her neck.

"That jewelry, does it have any sentimental value to you?" Mowgli suddenly asked.

"Uhm, no…?" Noémie answered honestly, perplexed by the question.

"I need your earrings and choker." Mowgli said with considerable sincerity.

Persuasion Check: 18 (Rolled) + 2 (Chr. Mod.) + 3 (Prof. Bonus) = 23

Success!

She didn't seem happy about it, but Noémie quickly undid her jewelry and handed it to him.

Giving her a look of thanks, Mowgli turned back to the man's body and placed the pieces on his chest.

"Magic burns bright in the souls of all who can forgive, I ask it to Revivify, so that this man may live!" Mowgli chanted as swirling arcane energy began to coalesce around the gemstones.

Suddenly, with a sharp crack as the diamonds shattered into dust, Mowgli felt a great pulse of magic leave his hands and enter the man's chest.

3rd Level Spell: Revivify

-5 Spell Points

With a choked gasp, the man suddenly began to breath once more. Slowly his breathing steadied into a regular rhythm as the man laid unconscious, but most assuredly alive once more.

Grabbing the now empty metal of the jewelry, Mowgli tossed it back to Noémie, "I'll buy you some new jewelry when we get out of this."

Standing up from where he was kneeling, Mowgli made his way to the Phase Spider's corpse as he used the sharpened points of his mace to slice into the flesh on its face.

Nature Check: 8 (Rolled) + 2 (Int. Mod.) = 10

Success

…

2x Poison Phase Spider Fangs Gained!

'Can't have anyone finding the body. Questions will be asked.' Mowgli thought as he began to repeatedly cast Sacred Flame over and over again until all that was left was a charred misshapen husk that was completely unidentifiable.

Reaching into the sand at his feet, Mowgli plucked up his crossbow bolt that missed earlier.

1x Crossbow Bolt Gained!

Mowgli quickly stuffed the harvested fangs and crossbow bolt into his bag and turned back to Noémie to see her staring at him like a deer caught in headlights.

"He was dead." It was a simple statement in structure but carried incredible meaning.

"Yes," Mowgli agreed, "and we will be too if we stay here too long."

Having said his piece, Mowgli walked over to the back of the Humvee and grabbed the spare tarp which had thankfully not started burning yet. Walking back to the unconscious soldier, Mowgli draped the tarp over him before he began scooping a thin layer of sand overtop of it.

"That should hopefully mask the scent of his blood." Mowgli stated aloud as he peered down at his handiwork.

"What are you?" Noémie asked him, "In the past few hours you've cured me of my curse, used Brother's know how many magic spells, somehow known about the massive magic spider, which is absolutely not a Darkness Damned Grimm! And! Now you've just brought back the dead!"

Mowgli had a feeling that this conversation would be coming soon and spoke as he began to walk towards up the incline of the basin, "To answer your questions quickly; I'm a Cleric, I get my powers from my connection of worshipping my Goddess, Midnight, who I told you about earlier. The Phase Spider is a being not native to our world and slipped through the tears in reality, those Pulses you mentioned earlier are points when our dimension tears apart and others leak in. The spell I used, Revivify requires 30,000 Lien worth of Diamonds to function, and only works within a minute of death."

"Our current goal," Mowgli informed her, "is to make our way over to the temple were the reality tear is most likely laying. And, even if it isn't there, the Grimm Alpha ought to be there. If we kill the broodmother, all the spider Grimm will scatter like flies."

For a brief moment, Mowgli only heard the sounds of shifting sand and distant gunfire.

Then, Noémie spoke, "So this Goddess, you called her Midnight… She made Remnant?"

"No, that was The Brother Gods. Midnight is the Goddess of Magic from The Forgotten Realms, which is a series of planes of reality that are currently intersecting with this one." Mowgli corrected.

"The Brother Gods…. Like, Xanthus God of Darkness and Ramesses God of Light?" Noémie asked, awestricken.

"Yes, though I typically refer to them as hypocritical asinine incompetent sadistic frauds." Mowgli correct once again. He then tacked on, "Also, I'd prefer if you didn't say their names or swear on their divinity. I've already drawn enough attention to us by stealing a soul away from the beyond and returning them to this plane, and I have no idea how well my Nystul's Magic Aura spell will work against them, even in conjunction with the spells Midnight used to hide my presence initially."

Having now reached the crest of their climb, Mowgli could see that due to the curve of the river, they had been brought far closer to the old temple now. It was only 400ft off now and would take less than a few minutes' walk; or less than a minute if they ran.

Mowgli took the free moment to heal himself, "The Weave is called when the fight concludes, so that it may Cure Wounds."

1st Level Spell: Cure Wounds

-2 Spell Points

HP Healed: 5 (Rolled 1D8) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) = 9 HP Gained

"I have so many questions." Noémie confessed honestly.

"Good." Mowgli agreed, "I'd be concerned for you mentally if you didn't. However, they will have to wait. We need to make it to the temple, and I don't fancy a chattering stroll through the open desert where the horde might see us."

Mowgli then turned to her, "I know you said that you wanted to help, but my conscious tells me that I should check once more. So, are you certain you want to get involved; there's no shame if you back out now, It'd be selfish of me to expect you to risk your life for this."

Noémie looked like she was about to complain about him second-guessing her conviction, but she stopped short when she noticed the dire look on his face. Taking a moment, she asked him, "What's the worst thing we could run into, in there?"

Mowgli contemplated for a few seconds and answered, "A giant five-headed ancient dragon goddess who can only be hurt by spells that are three tiers higher than the one's I'm capable of."

Noémie looked at him, seemingly expecting him to say he was joking.

He wasn't, "Her name is Tiamat."

Noémie shook her head, "What the fuck have I gotten myself into? Alright, Fine! Let's save the fucking world!"

"Huh," Mowgli realized, "I guess we really are saving the world. That's a nice thought for motivation. Well, if it helps, Tiamat is so powerful that she'd probably end up killing us instantly. So at least we won't suffer."

Noémie gave him a look, "Oh, joy. That certainly makes me feel so much better."

"That's the spirit." Mowgli applauded with a smirk, "Now, get ready to run."

"Ready." Noémie told him.

"Good, 3... 2... 1... Go!" Mowgli shouted go as they suddenly began to sprint.

And then they both realized that they were on the sand.

As the two of them pushed off of the sand, they felt the ground beneath them shift and their feet become unsteady.

Dexterity Saving-Throw: 16 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) = 18

Success!

Mowgli was able to stay upright and looking over, he could see that Noémie was able to as well. Both of them now had their arms spread out in order to balance themselves on their unsteady feet.

Looking at each other, they came to a silent agreement to never speak of the moment to anyone.

Starting their run once more, this time with a much more cautious start, Mowgli and Noémie began their trek towards the temple. Which at the moment appeared to be empty of the Grimm.

Mowgli was expecting to have to roll something, but he guessed that any rolls being made would instead be by the Grimm and not himself.

It was only fifteen seconds of running, but in the open desert with them knowing that Grimm were around, it felt like fifteen minutes.

Then began their ascent as they rapidly made their way up the temple steps to reach the large square top of the pyramid. Knowing the whole time that they would be visible for miles around.

However, it seemed as though Midnight was watching out for them, as they made it to the peak without incident.

Mowgli quickly sat down his pack and grabbed out his tinderbox. Prompting a perplexed look from Noémie.

"I may have the ability to see in the dark, but you don't." Mowgli explained as he began attempting to start a fire.

Suddenly the upper area was illuminated by a white light, causing Mowgli to look over and see that Noémie was currently holding her Scroll with the flashlight feature on.

"Need some light so you can see what you're doing over there?" Noémie asked with a shit-eating grin.

"Oh wipe that grin off your face. Its unbecoming of you." Mowgli said annoyed.

"Jokes on you, I have no idea what unbecoming means." Noémie responded cheekily, "Also do you really not have any spells that can give us some light?"

Mowgli went to respond, then stopped, and tapped her Scroll with his index finger as he said, "Light."

Suddenly her Scroll started glowing even brighter, now in purple-tinged light.

Mowgli absentmindedly swiped away the system notification for the spell he just casted.

Noémie looked down at her now vibrantly shining Scroll, "Couldn't have done that on anything else? You definitely have a flare for the dramatics." Turning, she began walking into the temple.

Rolling his eyes, Mowgli followed behind her. Inside the roofed top section of the temple, they found a single staircase leading down into the darkness.

"Ladies first." Mowgli gestured to the opening sarcastically.

"I do play videogames y'know? Of course I'm going in the front, I'm the frontline fighter and you're the healer who needs my protection." Noémie responded easily as she slowly began to walk down the steps.

"I wouldn't go far as to say needs." Mowgli argued.

"I would." Was Noémie's quick response.

"Cheeky." Mowgli answered quickly as they descended. It was when they were halfway down the staircase that Mowgli noticed the more traditional images of dragons and kings on the walls switch to glyphs of spiders and caverns.

"Why do you think the tear happened here? It seems a little unlikely that its just coincidence that our two realities just so happened to connect inside an ancient temple." Noémie commented wisely.

Mowgli considered her question before giving her his best guess, "The tears are caused by the build-up of uncollected worship and faith from the people of Remnant, which is called Aether. So I guess it makes sense for it to pool inside of an old religious structure."

"Why isn't the Aether being collected?" Noémie asked as she finished inspecting an image of a giant spider tearing a person limb from limb. At the same time, she had pulled out a roll of duck-tape from her satchel and began attaching her now glowing Scroll to the end of her hunting rifle.

"Cause The Brother Gods left over a thousand years ago." Mowgli answered simply.

"Right, sure." Noémie agreed tiredly, "Just casually let me know that The Brother Gods abandoned us for a thousand years."

"About three thousand actually." Mowgli clarified as Noémie groaned.

Finally, after seemingly miles of walking, the pair found themselves facing the end of their descent, marked by a closed stone door.

Noémie went to reach for the handle, but a quick grip on her shoulder from Mowgli dissuaded that, "I thought you said you played RPGs. We should check for traps first."

"Oh, right." Noémie seemed to realize what she had been about to do and stepped back for Mowgli to inspect the door.

Perception Check: 10 (Rolled) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) + 6 (Expertise Bonus) = 20

Success!

Mowgli noticed the spider motif on the door prominently, yet what also caught his eye was the way that it seemed to be made up of individual tiles of stone. Placing his hand against one of them, Mowgli slowly slid the one for the center body of the spider upwards which allowed the tile to pop off of the door and into his hands.

Looking it over, Mowgli found an alternate image on the back of the tile. Instead of just the top of the abdomen of the spider, their now was the upper torso of a Drow attached to the spider's body.

"Oh we are so fucked." Mowgli said aloud as he placed the tile back onto the door, this time with the tile facing the other way, allowing for the new picture to appear.

"What is it?" Noémie asked, looking over the odd, image.

"A Drider." Mowgli answered resignedly, "Their servants of Lolth, the spider goddess of Drow. Drow, otherwise known as dark Elves are her children, and when one of them fail her, she curses them to mutate into this. They're basically a centaur but with Elves instead of Humans and giant spiders instead of horses."

"She sounds friendly." Noémie remarked dryly.

"Very much so." Mowgli agreed with equal sarcasm, "One of her aliases is 'Spider Bitch'."

Reaching for the handle, Mowgli hesitantly turned it, and was happy to see that he had solved the puzzle correctly as the door opened with a click and not with flames or poison darts.

Pulling back the stone door, Mowgli and Noémie looked inside only to find a small room and several more stone doors before them. Each door was incredibly large, reaching ten feet high and six feet wide.

Slowly, the pair advanced into the room, seemingly vacant except for the webs that blanketed the walls and a couple of doors.

Passive Perception: Success

Mowgli tensed and carefully placed his hand on Noémie's shoulder. Turning to face him, Noémie saw him slowly mouth a singular word: 'Above', before placing his finger to his lips in a shushing motion.

Noémie gave him a look of askance, and Mowgli nodded in agreement to the unspoken request of permission to look upwards.

Both of them turning towards the ceiling, the pair found themselves faced with a spider nearly double the size of the Phase Spider from earlier. Its fist-size eyes stared down at them with glassy vacancy.

It was asleep.

Mowgli watched as Noémie slowly began to raise her rifle to blow the beast's brains out, but a quick grip of the barrel by Mowgli put a stop to that. He made a brief motion with his hands like a tiny explosion and then pointed to his ears, indicating that whatever else was in the dungeon might hear the noise of her rifle.

'Dammit, I really should've chosen Silence as one of my spells. I guess I'll have to prepare it after my next Long Rest.' Mowgli lamented internally, before Noémie's shuffling distracted him.

Noémie was currently ruffling through her coat pocket for a few moments before extracting a foot long hollow black cylinder, which she began to slowly screw onto the end of her rifle.

Once more, Noémie began to raise her rifle to fire upon the unnatural arachnid, and once more Mowgli stopped her. Slowly and deliberately, Mowgli pointed to himself first and then to Noémie.

Noémie shrugged, seemingly not caring about who went first.

In tandem, the pair slowly swiveled to face the giant sleeping spider once again.

Whispering softly under his breath, Mowgli casted the spell, "Magic's wrath flies true with its Guiding Bolt."

1st Level Spell: Guiding Bolt

-2 Spell Points

Ranged Spell Attack: 11 (Rolled) + 6 (Spellcasting Attack Bonus.) = 17

Success

Damage Given: 7 Radiant (4D6 Rolled) = 7 Damage

Due to the Spell's effects, the next attack against this target has Advantage!

As the spell made contact with the spider seven feet above him, the beast suddenly began to glow, as it woke up in startled annoyance. Yet before it could even utter a screech of pain…

Pop

Significantly softer than it was before, to the point that Mowgli didn't even think was physically possible, the rifle fired. Aided by Mowgli's spell, the shot landed on the right side of the awakening spider's face.

Tearing away a good portion of its flesh, and one of its mandibles, the shot certainly injured the giant spider.

But did not kill it.

Initiative: 3 (Rolled) + 4 (Initiative Bonus) = 7

First in Turn Order

Mowgli wasn't going to question his luck of somehow still ending up first in the turn order after rolling so bad, and instead focused on pulling the trigger of his crossbow right as the spider prepared to screech out and alert its allies.

Ranged Attack: 9 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) + 2 (Prof. Bonus) = 13

Failure!

-1x Crossbow Bolt

And missed by less than an inch as the spider shifted with grace unfitting of a beast of its size.

""Shit."" Mowgli and Noémie swore in harmony as the giant spider released its grip on the ceiling and attempted to fall directly on top of them.

Dexterity Saving-Throw: 15 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) = 17

Success!

Thankfully, it once again appeared that both of them had succeeded in their saving-throws as they leapt away from the falling behemoth.

Both of them turned back to face the enemy and fight for their lives, but they found themselves disappointed as they watched the giant spider proceed to not slow itself as it crashed into the stone floor.

Slam

It appeared as though the spider wasn't nearly as intelligent as they had given it credit for, as the damage from its fall seemed to have been the straw that broke the camel's back, as the phrase goes.

The giant spider crunched as a few of its legs snapped under its own bodyweight and it quickly perished upon impact.

Enemy Defeated: 200Exp (Giant Spider) / 2 Combatants = 100Exp Gained

"I guess we did more damage to it than we thought." Noémie idly commented as she kicked the spider's corpse with her foot.

"An interesting idea, what's more interesting however is where the fuck that suppressor came from? I know how suppressors work, they take a gunshot from loud as fuck to slightly less loud, not nearly silent like that one did." Mowgli told her as he slowly rotated in place, watching for any one of the doors leading into the room to open.

Yet none did.

"You're not the only one with connections, my prince." Noémie said with playful pride, "One of my followers who works in the Atlas Military sent it to me, along with an invitation to dine with her if I ever visited the Kingdom up North."

Mowgli picked up on part of her explanation, "Her?"

"Yeah, her, got a problem with that?" Noémie challenged, with a dangerous look in her eyes.

"Nope, other than your follower being a simp." Mowgli responded, "I'm just checking so that I know how to tell you apart from a Doppelganger or Oblex if you ever get replaced."

For probably the fifth time that day, Noémie rose her brow in confusion and disbelief, "A Fuckin' what?"

"Doppelgangers are humanoid shapeshifters that can read your thoughts and Oblexes are giant ooze monsters that eat your memories and create extensions of itself that replace the people its killed." Mowgli answered easily as he let out a calming breath once he concluded that nothing had heard the giant spider's fall.

"The fact that you said that so calmly immediately makes me think that you need a psychological evaluation when we get back to civilization." Noémie admitted bluntly. "Also, if they can absorb my memories and read my thoughts, then how would you be able to tell us apart by my dating preferences? Couldn't they just say the right answer and get away with it?"

"Just cause they know how you would respond, doesn't mean they won't mess up from time to time. They aren't actors that know their lines and everything that's going to come beforehand. They have to think and answer on the fly, which gives plenty of opportunity to make a mistake." Mowgli elaborated easily. Remember all the times he had made his own player's face Oblexes when he was a DM.

Noémie mulled the thought over in her head a few times before agreeing with it, "Fair point. Well then, for the record, I don't give a shit what someone has in their pants, so long as they're hot. Also, once again, we both should get pysch evals, this is not a normal conversation we should be having."

"Well, we can look into that later, for now we need kill whatever is directing all those spider Grimm to fight alongside one another." Mowgli told her as he began to inspect the ten doors that led away from their room, the tenth one being the door they came in through.

Investigation Check: 13 (Rolled) + 2 (Int. Mod) = 15

Success!

"Huh," Mowgli voiced aloud, impressed by what he had found, "well this is certainly quite the thematic temple."

"Care to share what you've figured out with the rest of the class?" Noémie asked as she did her own inspection around the room, reaching for one of the spider webs.

"First: I wouldn't do that." Mowgli warned, "These spiders can perfectly sense anything that touches their webs, so if one of them is here, the moment you touch that string, it will know that you're here too. Second: As for what I've found, it appears that this temple is structured to look like a giant spider from the top down. There are ten doors, eight of which go to the spider's legs, one goes to its abdomen, and one to its head."

"So the door we came through was the spider's head?" Noémie asked, catching onto Mowgli's explanation.

"Indeed, which means we are currently standing in the equivalent of the spider's thorax." Mowgli confirmed before sighing, "Nine doors to check, we don't have the time to check all nine. The longer we stay down here, the more soldiers that perish top-side."

"If your suggesting splitting the party, I will shoot you." Noémie threatened him as she brandished her rifle.

"No, and if I ever have such an inane idea, I hope you would shoot me and put me out of my misery." Mowgli agreed as he started doing his spell's somatic components/hand gestures.

"So what's our resident sorcerer casting now?" Noémie called out to him as she inspected the stone floors.

"Cleric." Mowgli reminded her, "And as for the spell… None can hide from the weave both elegant and erratic, I cast this spell to Detect Magic!"

Mowgli's world suddenly shifted like he had slipped on thermal imaging goggles.

1st Level Spell: Detect Magic

-2 Spell Points

"I can identify three separate sources of magic within 30 feet of us." Mowgli declared as the spell took effect. He continued, "The first one is Enchantment magic past the doorway leading to the spider's abdomen. The second and third are past the two doors flanking the door leading to its head, both of them are Transmutation magic."

"Define Enchantment and Transmutation magic." Noémie asked of him as she ran her fingers across the dust of the stone floors.

"Enchantment is any magic that alters your perception; Transmutation is magic that turns one thing into another, or otherwise alters something or someone into something or someone else." Mowgli lectured as he inspected the second and third doors.

"Hmm…" Noémie hummed as she finished her investigation, "The six doors that lead to the three legs on either side, that aren't part of the front two, all lead to unique nests."

"How can you be certain?" Mowgli asked in uncertainty of her conclusion.

"Each one has different tracks leaving from them. All of them are spider-like, but each one appears to be a different kind of spider Grimm, or something that's not a Grimm at all. They all lead to each of those two doors, which must mean that they're the way the spiders got out of the temple in the first place. After all, there's no way they could have fit through the corridor we came down through." Noémie justified as she indicated to the miniscule shifts in the dust on the flooring that she was somehow able to identify as entirely separate creatures.

"Which means that there must be some form of humanoid in here to justify the need for a separate path down entirely." Mowgli reasoned.

"Yep," Noémie agreed as she pointed to the final door leading to the spider's abdomen, "which is why there are both spider tracks and footprints leading to and from this door."

Looking over, this time Mowgli was actually able to identify the separate footprints planted in the dust laden floor.

Moving over to the door, Mowgli was able to sense further past the room they were in, "I can still feel the conjuration magic, but there's evocation magic as well." Sensing Noémie's next question Mowgli answered it before she could ask it, "Evocation magic is like fireballs and lightning storms. It's the closest magic to what the Maiden powers are capable of."

Mowgli was about to step back from the door, but he suddenly sensed something just on the edge of his perception. Stepping closer until his face was pressed against the cool stone, Mowgli felt it once more. It was… He wasn't certain how to describe it, it felt like every school of magic mixed together all at once, and yet at the same time it felt entirely different to all of them.

"Something… different is behind that door. I haven't a clue what it is, but I know that we need to keep our eyes open when we go in there. Don't let anything slip past you, are you ready?" Mowgli turned to ask his spelunking partner.

"Yeah," Noémie nodded before she suddenly stopped, seemingly remembering something, "wait, didn't you have a bird?"

"Archimedes is my familiar. I was using him to keep an eye on the convoy but had to dismiss him once we got too far underground for my link to reach him. But, you bring up a good point… Archimedes." As Mowgli called those words, a flash of feathery light appeared in his hands as he summoned his familiar to him.

Archimedes gave a soft trill as he flew up and settled upon his master's shoulder.

Noémie merely shook her head, "Fuck it, lets just add magic owls to the list of bullshit I've seen today."

Chuffing in amusement, Mowgli dismissed his Detect Magic spell and slowly began to open the door.

"Wait a minute, I wanna check something first." Noémie interrupted with a whisper as she started walking back towards the door that they entered from. Holding up her glowing scroll to illuminate the wall surrounding it, Noémie began to poke and prod at the various stone's covered in spider motifs.

"What are you doing?" Mowgli questioned, wondering if his teammate had lost her mind already.

"The Drider thing on the door, you flipped the tile around to replace a spider head with the body of a Drow, right? Well, if this dungeon is in the shape of a spider, what if there's a way to flip it into a Drider as well." Noémie explained as she tried pressing in several stones before…

Click.

Noémie turned away from the door and smiled at him, "Look me in the eyes and tell me I'm not the most valuable member of this team."

Twang-Thunk

The noise of Mowgli's crossbow firing filled the room as the bolt flew directly over Noémie's head and into one of the eyes of the spider behind her.

The beast, about the size of a basketball collapsed from its web and fell lifelessly onto the floor.

Wordlessly, Mowgli walked over and retrieved his crossbow bolt from the body of the spider as he viewed his system notifications.

Ranged Attack: 9 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) + 2 (Prof. Bonus) = 13

Success

Damage Given: 8 Piercing (1D8 Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) = 10 Damage

-1x Crossbow Bolt

…

Enemy Defeated: 25Exp (Infant Giant Spider) = 25Exp Gained

…

1x Crossbow Bolt Gained!

Dismissing the message, Mowgli turned back to Noémie, "I believe you were saying something?"

"Not a word." Noémie warned with an embarrassed huff as she turned away and crossed her arms.

Accepting his win, Mowgli pulled open the door they had come through once before. Once again it led to a staircase leading upward, but peering up it, Mowgli could see it was quite a bit shorter than the one they came down on.

Making his way up the staircase with Noémie trailing behind him, Mowgli reached the landing that sat just before a closed wooden door.

Holding his ear up against the door, Mowgli listened patiently for any sound of activity.

Perception Check: 16 (Rolled 15 and 16 with Advantage) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) + 6 (Expertise Bonus) = 26

Success!

Nothing, not even the squeaks of mice could be heard beyond the door.

Cracking the door slightly, Mowgli quickly peered around the frame of the door, checking to make sure there were no trip wires attached to it.

Certain that it wasn't trapped, Mowgli fully opened the door and advanced into the room.

Illuminated by several sconces on the walls, Mowgli found a medium room furnished with what appeared to be a small kitchen and common area based around the table, chairs, cooking pot, and couple of empty weapon racks.

Three doors other than the one he entered from were attached to the room.

Reloading his crossbow, Mowgli slowly proceeded through the room, checking all of the corners and areas where someone might be hiding as he did so.

Turning to Noémie, he found her peering through one of the other doors. "Sleeping quarters," She informed, "I'll check it out."

Nodding to her, Mowgli opened one of the other doors, only to close it afterwards once he realized it was just the washroom. Checking the final door, Mowgli found a room that was quite a bit more ostentatious than everything else in the dungeon.

The walls were decked out with paintings and monster parts, while the furniture was dressed in velvet and gold trim.

The centerpiece of the room was the large queen size bed that wouldn't have been out of place in the bedchamber of an actual queen. Realizing that this was most likely the quarters of whoever was in charge, Mowgli began to search it thoroughly.

'Worthless.' Mowgli concluded as he looked over the paintings, which mostly depicted either Lolth or people of various fantasy races being tortured by a Drow. 'There's no way I could even hope to try selling these for anything,' Mowgli reasoned as he tore them off the wall and threw them on the ground, checking for anything behind them, yet finding nothing.

Moving onto the dressers and two bedside tables, Mowgli found various pieces of clothing and other useless trinkets which he ignored alongside the paintings.

He was starting to lose hope on finding anything until he found a small leather pouch in the bottom drawer of the left bedside table. Hefting it in his hand, Mowgli heard the soft clinking of coins knocking against each other.

"Jackpot." Mowgli praised himself as he tossed the pouch in his bag.

11x Gold Pieces Gained!

Giving the room one last look over, Mowgli left and closed the door behind him.

Just in time it seemed, as Noémie left the room she had been investigating just a few seconds afterward.

"Find anything?" Mowgli asked, as he surveyed the common area once again.

"Just this." Noémie informed him as she tossed a small silver object over to him.

Catching it, Mowgli found himself holding what looked like a small round silver flask. A quick shake informed him that it was filled, and upon popping the cap and peering inside to the bubbling green fluid, Mowgli had a pretty clear idea as to what it was.

Tossing it back to her Mowgli gave her the verdict, "Looks like a poison flask intended for the wearer."

"Why would they have one of those?" Noémie asked as they began making their way back down the staircase to the main room.

"I'm not certain, but if I had to guess it's kind of like those cyanide pills you see spies use in movies when they want to avoid being caught and interrogated." Mowgli hypothesized as they stepped into the chamber once again.

Noémie closed the door behind them and attempted to pull the stone button she had pressed in, back outwards.

Click

Opening the doorway, Noémie found the original staircase they had come down upon. Satisfied that they still had a way out, Noémie shut the door for a final time as they both moved to the other room they planned to investigate.

Cracking open the door he had sensed the Enchantment magic behind, Mowgli prepared himself for whatever may come.

The moment that it had shifted past the frame it was set in, Mowgli's senses were assaulted by both a horrible smell and the sound of voices.

"High Priestess, are you certain that this ritual will work?" A raspy unknown voice inquired.

The question was quickly answered, "Do you wish to suggest an alternative, acolyte? We have lost contact with the Dark Mother ever since we've found ourselves in this accursed plane."

"It's just that we were instructed to only use it in a most dire emergency." The first voice argued.

"Would you claim that this isn't an emergency acolyte, when we cannot hear her word and execute her will?" The second voice challenged.

"But the tear between the planes has grown bigger today… Perhaps that means that we will be able to speak with her once again soon?" Voice one optimistically suggested.

"Or it means that we will be once again transported to another realm unattached to the World Tree of Lolth's multiverse." Voice two pessimistically denied.

"Will she not be angry with us for asking her to clean up our problems?" The first voice broached nervously.

"Maybe, but with these daemons, known as Grimm to the residents of this world, falling under our will due to their nature as creatures of darkness and as spiders, we can offer our lady an entire world to increase our forces with." The second voice finished the discussion with a note of finality.

"Is that… Valean?" Mowgli suddenly realized that despite the two unknowns not speaking Vytalian, he could still understand them.

Quickly checking his System screen, Mowgli was certainly surprised by what he found.

Languages: Vytalian, Vacish, Valean, and Mistralian.

Updating…

Languages: Vytalian (Common), Vacish (Draconic), Valean (Elvish), and Mistralian (Orcish).

"Can you understand what they're saying?" Noémie asked, pulling Mowgli away from his thoughts.

"Uh… Yeah. They're talking about some ritual or something. Apparently, they're stuck here and don't know how to get back." Mowgli explained in a whisper, as he slowly crept through the door he had set ajar.

Stealth Check: 12 (Rolled 12 and 13 with Disadvantage) + 2 (Dex. Mod) = 14

Success!

Mowgli was confused for a moment as to the reasoning for the disadvantage on his stealth, but he soon remembered that his armor was what gave him the debuff.

Creeping through the door, Mowgli found himself in a large domed antechamber. He was currently crouched on a balconied catwalk that spiraled around the circular room.

Eight great pillars of stone stood in a square formation near the corners of the room, reaching up to the high ceiling.

In between each set of two pillars sat a staircase leading down from the raised catwalk towards a square platform in the middle of the room. Peering in between the four staircases, Mowgli found himself peaking down into what appeared to be a bottomless abyss.

On the central platform Mowgli could see five Drow and three Driders residing. Four of the Drow stood wearing red robes and facing a brazier on the central platform, where the last one of them was positioned wearing a pitch black robe. Two of the Driders were both situated on the staircases leading upwards towards the catwalks, facing outwards towards the balcony above them. The final Drider was splayed out on the altar, clearly indicating a sacrificial offering.

One that had already been carried out based on the fact that she was cut open from the neck to the navel and blood was oozing from her corpse.

The second voice spoke once more, coming from what appeared to be the one in charge, "Oh Lady Lolth, Mother of Darkness, cast your shadow upon your daughter now so that you may guide her in her time of troubles."

It was as the Drow priestess spoke that Mowgli's attention was brought upwards towards the object that the Drow was preaching towards. A great tear floating in the middle of the air, maybe 25ft across and exuding a rainbow of hues and crackling with the sound of lightning.

A rip in the fabric of reality… A path to an entirely different Planescape.

The sound of ruffling parchment, drew Mowgli's attention back to the head Drow who was unravelling a scroll and continuing the spell. Thankfully, Mowgli was able to see the name of the spell written across the top, 'Gate'.

'Oh shit!' Mowgli mentally swore as he grabbed hold of his amulet and began to cast.

The priestess chanted, "I reach across the Planes, bridging the gap between, I cast this spell so that I may open the Gate."

"Counterspell!" Mowgli shouted suddenly, as he launched a piercing dart of magic at the Drow priestess.

3rd Level Spell: Counterspell

-5 Spell Points

Spell Check: 17 (Rolled) + 7 (Spellcasting Ability Mod.) = 24

Success!

The magic dart struck true as it vaporized the spell scroll and the spell contained within it.

"Who dares?!" The priestess cried in anger as she along with all the other servants of Lolth turned to face him.

Right on time for his next spell as Mowgli called out a spell of infamous noterity, "Fireball!"

3rd Level Spell: Fireball

-5 Spell Points

Damage Given: 31 Fire (8D6 Rolled) = 31 Damage

Mowgli sent a silent thanks to Midnight, once he realized that all of them were in a 20ft radius of each other and that they had all failed their Dexterity Saving-Throw for the spell and were taking full damage.

Initiative: 20 (Rolled) +4 (Initiative Bonus) = 24

First in Turn Order

'Fuck! Why do I keep wasting natural 20s on Initiative rolls!' Mowgli lamented internally.

Meanwhile the head priestess, which was the only one that survived his attack, screamed at the Driders in her native tongue, "Get him! Get the one who dares to interrupt the work of the Queen! Flay his Skin!"

"Yeah, sorry, but I'm not into the whole skin flaying thing. It's a bit too kinky for me if you catch my drift." Mowgli taunted them in Elvish before casting Fireball once again upon them.

3rd Level Spell: Fireball

-5 Spell Points

Damage Given: 22 Fire (8D6 Rolled) / 2 (Successful Saving-Throw) = 11 Damage

"Whelp, apparently that was all my luck for today." Mowgli commented as the Drow and Driders all moved out of the way of the spell, still sustaining some damage from it though.

"What the Fuck, Mowgli? What happened to be stealthy about this?" Noémie questioned him as she sent a volley of shots towards one of the approaching Driders.

"The one in the black robes was about to cast a Gate spell." Mowgli answered.

"What does that one do?" Noémie inquired as she reloaded her rifle.

"It was supposed to bring the Dark Mother to this plane!" The Drow priestess interrupted.

"Huh, well would you look at that, a Drow that knows Common." Mowgli voiced his surprise.

"Do you mean Vytalian?" Noémie asked him in confusion.

Mowgli explained it to her, "Nah, they call it Common in their world-"

"Stop ignoring us! We are your enemy!" The Drow complained as she launched a spell at them.

Mowgli narrowly dodged the Ray of Sickness spell as it flew over his shoulder, "That was incredibly rude, we were having a conversation here, wait your tur-Woah!"

Mowgli shouted in surprise as he stepped back to avoid a swing from the Drider that had advanced on him. Yet the second and third strikes made contact with him.

Damage Taken: 9 Slashing + 7 Slashing = 16 Damage

Mowgli grunted in pain as blood dripped from his shoulder. The sound of arrows whistling through the air informed him that Noémie was engaged in a ranged duel with the other Drider.

"Spiritual Weapon!" Mowgli quickly tried to pull himself off of the backfoot of the battle by creating a spectral weapon to help him.

2nd Level Spell: Spiritual Weapon

-3 Spell Points

Melee Spell Attack: 1 (Rolled) + 7 (Spell Attack Mod.) = 8

Failure!

A purple spear manifested in the air above the Drider's head, however a quick shift to the side allowed the human-spider hybrid to dodge the strike from the weapon.

Mowgli ignored the miss however and launched a Firebolt at point-blank range.

Cantrip: Firebolt

Ranged Spell Attack: 16 (Rolled 16 and 19 with Disadvantage due to close range) + 7 (Spell Attack Mod.) = 23

Success!

Damage Given: 14 Fire (2D10 Rolled) = 14 Damage

The flames rolled across the Drider's arms and Mowgli let his mouth turn upward in a victorious smirk. This, however, didn't last long as he soon realized that it seemed his spell had only really succeeded in pissing it off.

Behind the Drider before him, Mowgli saw a flash of magic coming from the direction of the Drow priestess, followed by the noise of screeching spiders that sounded as though they were rapidly charging in his direction.

Once More the Drider swiped her long sword at him, this time with the steel crashing against his armored chest, casting yellow sparks across the floor. Growling in rage, the Drider surprised Mowgli as she suddenly lunged forward and bit his unprotected neck.

Damage Taken: 6 Piercing + 8 Poison = 14 Damage

"Son of a bitch!" Mowgli swore in pain as felt the venom from the Drider's fangs course through the veins in his neck. 'No.', Mowgli corrected himself, 'The Drider's fang, it only has one fang.'

"You doing alright Mowgli?" Noémie called over to him worriedly.

"Yeah," Mowgli answered with a bloody cough as he tightened his cloak around his neck to stem the flow of blood before glaring at the Drider before him, "I was actually just about to finish up."

'Let's hope this works.' Mowgli psyched himself up for his moronic plan as he quickly yanked out the old climbing hook his parents had passed down to him from his grandfather. Holding the pronged end in one hand and the steel chain in the other Mowgli shook his head wondering what his mother would think of him for using the family heirloom like this.

As he prepared his next course of action, Mowgli mentally commanded his floating spear to once more stab at the Drider before him.

2nd Level Spell: Spiritual Weapon

Melee Spell Attack: 5 (Rolled) + 7 (Spell Attack Mod.) = 12

Failure!

The Drider merely knocked the spectral weapon to the side with her longsword, but Mowgli didn't care about that part. What mattered was that the Drider looked upwards towards the spear as she did so.

Exposing her own neck to him.

"Let's see how you fucking like it when I fuck with your neck!" Mowgli shouted at her as released the climbing hook that he had been winding up like a ball and chain.

The spiked climbing hook flew from his hand upwards and towards the Drider. The hook flying past the Drider's shoulder before Mowgli jerked the chain backwards with his other hand, causing the hook to swing back around and wrap around the Drider's neck before the sharpened prongs pierced the flesh just below her chin.

Ranged Attack: 17 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) = 19

Success

Damage Given: 2 Piercing (1D4 Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) = 4 Damage

The Drider cursed in pain as she turned back towards Mowgli, only for her eyes to widen as horror as she watched him smirk at her from where he stood on the balcony above the abyss.

"Going down?" Mowgli asked with a deranged laugh as he jumped off the edge.

Mowgli felt the air rush around him as he fell.

10… 20… 30… 40… 50… 60… feet he fell before suddenly…

Clang!

Mowgli felt the chain go taught as he did his best to cling onto it from where he had wrapped it around his hands.

Damage Taken: 6 Broadening = 6 Damage

Mowgli felt the chain pull at his arms attempting to yank them right off of his body, yet they thankfully held strong as he looked upwards. Just in time it appeared to watch as the yank in the chain travelled all the way up to the Drider who had made the mistake of looking over the edge.

Crunch!

Mowgli gagged and tried not to be sick as he both heard and felt the Drider's neck snap as her head was rapidly pulled downwards and towards the edge of the staircase before crashing directly onto the impromptu gallows for the Drider to be reverse hanged upon. All the while the sharpened hook dug further into her neck.

Damage Given: 28 Broadening (6D6 Rolled) + 16 (6D4 Rolled) = 44 Damage

Mowgli waited a moment, expecting something to happen, but nothing came. The Drider was certainly gone, and he was now hanging 60ft down a bottomless pit.

"Well shit… I mean, I'm in an anime world… And my sister was able to do it for her initiation, so wall-running can't be that hard." Mowgli reasoned as he slowly planted his feet against the side of the central platform and tried standing against it. He knew that he could always use the Fly spell in the worst case scenario, but he was hoping to save his spell points for the fight.

His feet kept slipping at least until he started building up momentum in his swing as he ran side to side along the sheer wall. Slowly, he began increasing his arc going from 60ft to 30ft at the highest.

Feeling that he was ready to go for it, Mowgli ran as fast as he could and threw himself around the corner of the platform and tried to keep running.

Acrobatics Check: 1 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) = 3

Critical Failure!

Instead he felt the tension in the chain suddenly give out as he spiraled into a free fall.

"Fly!" Mowgli called out with a yelp as he suddenly felt his descent slow as he began to float in place in the air.

3rd Level Spell: Fly

-5 Spell Points

Catching the climbing hook as it fell down to him, Mowgli realized that it had torn right through the remains of the Drider. Shaking his head, Mowgli cautiously began to try and float upwards as he gradually began to get a feel for the spell.

Reaching the edge of the ritual platform, Mowgli caught sight of the other Drider, the Drow priestess, and two Giant Spiders that were all moving closer to surround Noémie.

Thinking for a moment Mowgli flew upwards and over towards her before dropping the hook towards her, "Grab on!"

Noémie slowly looked upwards, following the chain all the way back up to where he was flying. Grabbing hold of base of the hook so that it wouldn't cut her, Noémie asked the question that anyone in her situation would, "You can fucking fly?!"

"Well yeah, you could too when you were the Maiden." Mowgli answered, perplexed by her confusion.

"I didn't really have much control over it though." Noémie explained as she felt herself be lifted off her feet as Mowgli flew upwards. Meanwhile his spear of purple light shot off towards the Drow Priestess.

2nd Level Spell: Spiritual Weapon

Melee Spell Attack: 9 (Rolled) + 7 (Spell Attack Mod.) = 16

Success!

Damage Given: 8 Piercing (1D8 Rolled) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) = 12 Damage

Then, with Noémie safely out of the way, Mowgli once more cast what was quickly becoming his favorite spell, "Fireball!"

3rd Level Spell: Fireball

-5 Spell Points

Damage Given: 28 Fire (8D6 Rolled) = 28 Damage

As the fire cleared, Mowgli and Noémie were given a clear view of the scorched remains of the two Giant Spiders and the Drow priestess. The Drider however, was still going strong.

Noémie's Aura sparked in response to the two arrows launched from the Drider's longbow, before finally shattering as the third arrow pierced through it, and into Noémie's abdominal.

"Agh!" Noémie grunted in pain before calling out to Mowgli above her, "Spin me!"

"What…?" Mowgli gave her a blank look.

"Spin me!" Noémie ordered again.

Shrugging, Mowgli slowly began to fly in a circle as he himself revolved around a point to allow Noémie to loop higher and higher until.

Noémie kicked off the rampart and upwards towards the circular walls of the room before gliding across them like she was wakeboarding. Coming around to where the Drider was raising its sword at her, Noémie ran even faster as she brandished her rifle.

A rifle that Mowgli now realized had a bayonet attached to the end of it.

Noémie shot forward like a bullet as she thrust the blade directly through the Drider's armored chest and proceeded to launch her forward into the rooms walls as she continued to run and drag the entire Drider against the stone bricks like an extremely gory cheese grater.

Eventually her momentum slowed from the friction of the Drider's body against the walls which were now smeared with blood.

Coming to a stop and landing upon her feet on the catwalk, Noémie adjusted her grip on her rifle from where it was still pinned to the Drider's chest…

And pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The Drider's body was launched off of the end of the bayonet and fell lifeless onto the ground before Noémie.

'So that's how you wall run.' Mowgli nodded in realization as he floated down to where Noémie was slowly huffing in exhaustion as she leaned against the wall before sliding to the floor.

Stepping down upon the ground, Mowgli suddenly realized how weak he was from the blood loss and decided to just float over and hover where she was sitting rather than risk not being able to stand back up afterwards.

"You doing alright?" He hesitantly asked as he rested a hand on her shoulder.

Noémie nodded her head tiredly a couple of times as she leaned her head tiredly against his hand. "Yeah, I'm just coming down from the adrenaline rush. I mean, I feel pretty tired, but I also feel great, like I did earlier. I thought I was flagging, but all of sudden I had this sudden surge of energy, like I had caught my second wind. Also, and I know this sounds weird, but I feel faster now too." Noémie answered uncertainly.

"Good, cause I only have a little bit of mana left and I need to use a healing spell on myself." Mowgli raised his right hand up and laid it upon his neck, "Cure Wounds."

1st Level Spell: Cure Wounds

-2 Spell Points

Health Healed: 5 (1D8 Rolled) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) = 9 HP

Mowgli let out a shuddering breath as he felt his skin and other tissues mend back together in his neck as the flow of blood was slowly stemmed from the wound and the Drider's poison was purged from his veins.

Noémie exhaustedly rose her head to look up at him where he was floating, "How about you, are you doing alright?"

"Yeah, I think so." Mowgli answered breathlessly as he rested his upper body against the wall.

"You sure...?" Noémie check in once more, "You're covered in blood, and I think I can see the bone in your shoulder."

Mowgli looked down to his armor and cape, finding their purple, black, and gold coloring stained with his own crimson fluids.

"Tis but a scratch." Mowgli quipped lightheartedly before giving a wincing cough once he realized that it hurt his throat to laugh.

"You're really weird, you know that?" Noémie bluntly told him, "Most of the time you talk like this super serious noble, but the moment you're in a fight you start throwing jokes and shit."

Mowgli shrugged, "Eh, don't know why I do it, probably just some underlying subconscious effort by my mind in order to prevent the rest of my brain from having a panic attack when there's a giant monster trying to eat me."

Noémie nodded her head back in forth understandingly, "Fair enough." Coughing to change the topic, Noémie continued, "So… We just killed a bunch of people, but were still the good guys, right? Like, they were terrible people, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I mean, they're basically a bunch of genocidal terrorists and extremists who also enslave boys from the moment their born, all the while being led by a Demon Goddess who hasn't gotten over her really messy divorce to the God of Elves." Mowgli summarized quickly.

There was a pregnant pause as Noémie digested that, before she finally spoke once more, "Alright, I'm going to say something really weird because I feel like I need to in order to make sure I'm still me… Y'know?"

"Shoot." Mowgli gave her the go ahead.

"It kinda sucks that their evil cause their really hot." Noémie stated plainly.

Mowgli held out for a few seconds before laughing slightly, "Ha! Don't worry, I'm certain we'll find you an Elf girlfriend at some point."

Noémie groaned in tired annoyance as she slowly picked herself off of the floor, "Can I have a blonde one?"

"All things considered, you might have just saved the world so, sure you can have a blonde one. Better yet, we'll get you two of them." Mowgli joked back to her.

A wry grin slowly spread across his lips as she began to laugh alongside him, "Two Elf girlfriends… That sounds really nice, doesn't it?"

Mowgli shook his head in amusement as he agreed with her "It does… It does indeed."

Mowgli reached down to help pick her up when he finally felt all his strength leave him as he was barely able to keep his spell intact as he began to tip over.

"Whoa! Ya, I don't know about you being alright over their dude." Noémie corrected him as she threw his arm over her shoulder and helped him stand up.

"You might be right there. I'm still getting used to this whole fighting otherworldly monsters thing." Mowgli agreed as he let her take on more of his weight in order for him to better stand upright.

"How long have you been doing this for?" Noémie asked as she helped him become steadier on his feet.

"These were the first ones I fought." Mowgli answered quickly.

Noémie sighed, "I honestly can't tell if your fucking with me or not, but that's something to figure out later. More importantly, what're we going to tell your aunt? Its not like we can just say that some Grimm attacked us, I have an arrow sticking out of me, and I don't want to test out trying to remove it right now when the head might break off still lodged in my chest."

Mowgli continued to shift in order to put less weight on his injured shoulder as he spoke, "Bandits would probably be our best option. Some bandit tribe got ahold of someone with a teleportation Semblance which would explain how we got in the temple, how the one spider was moving around, and how the Grimm got into the city without breaching the walls. We can tell her that he monologed like all good villains do and that he explained that he teleported a bunch of Grimm Brood Mothers into the temple to foster an army of spider Grimm for him to send out wherever he wished."

"Weird… But it would fit." Noémie agreed with the cover story easily.

It was as he was adjusting his stance that Mowgli felt his lynx ears twitch in response to an unknown noise, "Hey, you hear that?"

They both proceeded to turn their heads on a swivel looking for the origin of the disturbance before Mowgli felt Noémie tap on his arm and point across the floor towards the body of the Drow priestess.

The Drow priestess who apparently wasn't dead yet, at least judging by her talking Elvish, "In the name of the Dark Mother, I summon you from the depths of the Abyss to me now, arise Yochlol!"

A flash of reddish light echoed from her hands as she finished her chanting.

…

Yet, nothing appeared.

"Was… Was that supposed to do something?" Noémie asked perturbed at the anticlimactic result.

Mowgli thought for a second as he scratched his chin in contemplation, "Yeah, uhm, I think its supposed to summon like an ooze spider demon thing, but its only got like a 30% chance of working. Then again, it also might have something to do with us being in an entirely different section of the multiverse."

Both of them stared at the Drow priestess who laid dying on the ground before them.

"So… Do we kill her?" Noémie checked with him uncertainly.

"Uhhhh…. I don't know, it feels a little wrong with her already being down." Mowgli answered honestly before slowly walking over to the downed enemy with Noémie supporting his movement. "I mean, I guess that I can just…" Mowgli's voice trailed off as he used the tip of his foot to slowly push the Drow over the edge of the platform.

They both stood there silently for a few moments before…

Thump

"Huh, I guess it wasn't a bottomless pit." Mowgli morbidly realized.

"We're going to need so much therapy when this is all said and done with." Noémie realized aloud.

"Yeah." Mowgli agreed honestly before slowly looking over to the tear in reality that hovered just above the altar of the central platform.

Enemies Defeated: 200 (50Exp X 4 Drow) + 4,600 (2,300Exp X 2 Drider) + 400 (200Exp X 2 Giant Spider) + 3,900 (Drow Priestess) / 2 Combatants = 4,550Exp Gained

…

Exp: 17,465/14,000 Until next level up.

Level Up!

Exp: 17,465/23,000 Until next level up.

Mowgli swiped the notification to the side as he slowly brought his arm away from Noemie's shoulder and began to walk on his own down the steps towards the rip in reality.

Noémie slowly paced behind him, "So, how exactly do we fix this thing?"

"I haven't a damn clue." Mowgli admitted as he closed in on the rift. Stepping onto the altar platform itself to get a closer look at it, Mowgli could feel the magic oozing out from the dimensional rip.

Being closer to it, Mowgli felt himself drawn towards it as he slowly reached his uninjured arm upwards, letting his fingertips grasp out towards it.

The part of the rip near his hand began to glow slightly brighter before like a bolt of lightning the energy arced outward and clung to his fingertips.

Mowgli yelped and jumped backwards as he shook his right hand to free it from the tingling feeling that traveled up his arm. Looking at the pads of his fingers, Mowgli saw that they were unchanged, and if anything the nerves there only felt more responsive, like they were more alive.

"You good?" Noémie checked in as she walked over and lifted his hand up so that she could inspect it herself.

"Yeah… It didn't hurt, it actually felt kind of familiar." Mowgli answered, trying to remember where he had felt the sensation before.

"Speaking of familiar, what happened to that bird you summoned earlier?" Noémie asked him as she glared distrustfully at the rift.

"Well, we're in a dungeon, so I decided to send him scouting to see if he'd be able to find us any loot while were busy fighting things and dealing with the dimensional rift." Mowgli explained as he once more ascended the altar to reach his hand out to the tear.

Bringing his hand forward, the energy leapt onto his hand once again. However, expecting it this time, Mowgli kept his hand steady and slowly began to bring it closer to the tear until he finally phased his hand through it directly.

"The Primordial River…" Mowgli realized breathlessly as he finally recognized the buzzing sensation he had felt before he had been reborn in this world.

"The what?" Noémie asked curiously as she walked closer to him.

"The Primordial River, the origin of all that is. It's both life and death, creation and destruction, and time and space." Mowgli explained as he let the sandy grains of the river flow between his fingers. "That's what this is-or rather, that's what this is of. The Aether is an abstraction of the Primordial River, which makes sense considering the reality altering effects that the Aether is capable of."

"In Vytalian please." Noémie said, reminding him that she didn't have all the details yet.

"Right, basically, the Primordial River is how everything exists, and whenever something is destroyed or dies, it returns to the river. The Aether is basically our mortal influence on the course of the Primordial River due to our beliefs. So, while one grain of sand in the stream won't do much, if a bunch of us all believe in one thing, like a religion, then the whole river could be diverted." Mowgli did his best to summarize.

"So…" Noémie began, checking to make sure she understood it correctly, "If everyone in Remnant believed that Grimm were really nice and friendly, would they actually change to be so?"

Mowgli shook his head, "No, it would be incredibly difficult to change the fundamental nature of something. That'd be like trying to divert the course of a stream heading downhill. For most change to occur, you'd need a catalyst, like how water is diverted by a boulder or an overturned tree; the more you want to divert the stream, the bigger the catalyst you need."

"So we need a catalyst in order to push the extra Aether to, in order for the rift to close?" Noémie theorized.

"Yes!" Mowgli agreed with her, fascinated by the idea, "If we can utilize the Aether that has built up here toward something, then it should allow the barrier between dimensions to repair itself naturally; and, even if it doesn't it should prevent it from growing larger until we find a way to properly close it."

Mowgli continued as his mind began to race with connections, "The more I think about it, the more that it makes sense. The Maidens might have lost power over the centuries if they had been unknown, but instead they were immortalized in the form of a children's book, so nearly every kid's belief fuels their continual power, possibly making them even stronger than what they were initially. Furthermore, I remember reading a report a few years ago, talking about how based on historic records that Grimm activity has always seemed to increase proportionally to our population. They speculated that it had something to do with more people with Aura, but what if instead its more people that are fearing the Grimm that allows for the Grimm pools to be powered to an equal level with the size of our civilizations. It explains the issues with your powers and the large amount of Grimm as well, they were reacting to the Aether in the area since that's their primary component. Further, Midnight said…" Mowgli blinked as he realized where his train of thought had led him.

"That's your patron isn't it…? What did she say?" Noémie was intrigued by why he had cut himself off so abruptly.

Mowgli blinked a few more times as he cleared the fog from his mind, "She said… That by making me her cleric, she had bound me to her domain of Arcana and made me a 'quasi-immortal'."

"Okay…" Noémie gave a noncommittal response, indicating for him to continue.

"So what if we don't need to find a catalyst. My powers have shown themselves to be synergetic with the Aether, even though I don't know how to utilize it yet. What if I can be the catalyst?"

"On the one hand, its worth a shot. On the other hand, do we have any idea what might happen if it goes wrong?" Noémie justified her unease of this plan of action.

"Not a clue. Midnight said that I should be able to absorb it through worshippers, but she didn't say whether or not I'd be able to harvest it directly from the tears." Mowgli honestly admitted.

"How about we see what your owl found before we go fucking with the portal thing." Noémie advised.

Mowgli shrugged, before wincing in pain after he remembered that his shoulder was injured, "Works for me."

Sending his mind through the connection he had to his Familiar, Mowgli felt his vision warp as he suddenly found himself looking at the world through Archimedes' perspective.

He was perched on an outcropping underneath the arch of one of the bridged staircases. Before him was a wall of stone, however one of the bricks had shifted and fallen from its original placement, revealing a small chamber hidden in the stonework behind it. Peering through the gap with Archimedes' Darkvision, Mowgli was barely able to make out the shape of an iron strongbox tucked against the backwall.

Letting his consciousness return to his body, Mowgli looked for Noémie to explain what he had found. He stopped short however, once he found her rummaging around with the bodies of the dead Drow.

"Are you looting them?" Mowgli asked with a lilt.

"Yep, it's not like they're going to be using any of this." Noémie justified, "Your owl find anything?"

"Fair enough, can't fault you on that logic. Yeah, Archimedes found a hidden chest, but I have no idea how to reach it. It's underneath the bridges and my Fly spell has worn out by this point."

"This have anything to do with it?" Noémie asked as she tossed something over to him.

Catching the small object, Mowgli found himself holding an onyx black key. The part that actually went into the lock was nothing special, however the cap to it was a loop of the dark material with the inside pulsing a sickly green.

Mowgli considered that this key probably opened the strongbox, but it still didn't explain how to reach it in the first place. Sure, the Drider's could climb upside down on ceilings, but they were considered lower caste in Drow society, it wouldn't make sense for them to be the only ones capable of accessing the temple's riches.

Investigation Check: 15 (Rolled) + 2 (Int. Mod.) = 17

Success!

Mowgli felt the pieces connect in his mind's eye, 'The Drow were using a Spell Scroll when we got here, which means they most likely had retrieved it from the strongbox, as there's no way they would just hold such a valuable 9th level Spell Scroll on them all the time. The Drider was missing a fang… a poison fang.'

Mowgli took one of the fangs that he had harvested from the Phase Spider out of his bag, since both the Driders were either burnt to a crisp or headless. He then held the poison tip against the loop of the key, and waited.

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long as the poison was drawn out from the tip of the fang in a mystic spiral before the tooth itself began to dissolve into a fine powder in his hands. When all was said and done, he was left with a handful of bone dust and a now brightly glowing key.

Gazing at the green spiral of poison in the loop of the key, Mowgli spied something beyond the swirls.

"Noémie, come here, I figured it out." Mowgli shrugged his head to the side in a 'Come check this out' motion.

Noémie paced over to him, giving a curious look to the now glowing key.

"Look through it, it's an Adder Stone. The hole in the rock was naturally formed when the magma cooled, while the rest of the key was carved around it by the Drow. Looking through them allows you to see hidden things beyond your natural perception." Mowgli explained as Noémie glimpsed through the loop in the key's handle.

A bridge of black obsidian stone spiraled outward from the main platform and led under the main bridgeway where the hidden storeroom was situated.

Holding each other's hands for safety, they walked together slowly as they both peered through the key, carefully watching their steps as they made their way along the invisible path.

Arriving at the false wall, Mowgli allowed Archimedes to fly up from his perch of stone and land upon his shoulder.

Looking at the wall via the key, they found the cracks between the stones oozing a green miasmic energy.

Taking the key between his thumb and index finger, Mowgli dragged the end of it across one of the gaps in the stone. A second later a pulse of greenish black energy echoed across the stonework as the faux wall vanished before them.

Mowgli went to take a step forward, however in a parallel or earlier, Noémie stopped him this time.

"I don't like this. This all seemed far too easy." Noémie argued as she glared distrustfully around the room.

Mowgli facepalmed.

"What?" Noémie asked challengingly, "Don't tell me you don't see how everything was going our way."

"I did." Mowgli answered, "I just knew that pointing it out was only asking for something to go wrong, something-"

The walls of the chamber shook as loose stones fell from the ceiling above.

"-Like that." Mowgli finished.

"Oh." Noémie slowly nodded in embarrassed understanding.

The chamber began to shake even harder as the stone pillars of the room shifted, sending dust and rocks flying down into the pit below.

"What happened?" Noémie asked worriedly, as she watched the stones fall down around them, with the bridge above them protecting them from any of the impacts.

"If I had to guess, I'd say that there was probably some form of passcode that we had to say first in order to disable whatever alarm system they had rigged up to this thing." Mowgli answered as he gazed around uncertainly as he concocted a plan.

"Grab the loot! I'm going to close the rift and then were both going to get the hell out of dodge." Mowgli ordered as he cautiously made his way back up the invisible bridge, doing his best to remember its path back upwards.

Dexterity Saving Throw: 10 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) = 12

Success!

Hearing a whistling in his ears, Mowgli made a split second decision and leaped the rest of the way onto the main platform. Hearing the sound of a rock crashing behind him, Mowgli looked back only to see nothing there. 'The bridge makes all the objects on it invisible, else it would be noticed with all the dust floating on it.' Mowgli realized absentmindedly as he stood up and refocused on his main goal.

Sprinting over to the altar, Mowgli hopped onto it, ignoring the way that all of his jerky movements were causing his shoulder to ache in pain as he felt blood seep down his arm.

Reaching up with his good hand, Mowgli placed his hand within the Aether. Not having a procedural guide or even the slightest clue on how to go about this, Mowgli tried the first thing that came to mind. Thrusting his hand even further into the rift, Mowgli tried to grab onto the Aether and pull.

Pain!

Mowgli felt every nerve in his hand suddenly cry out in agony as if he had just dipped the whole thing in acid.

"Fuck!" Mowgli grunted in agony with clenched teeth. Tearing himself away, Mowgli fell backwards onto the ground as he looked upon his hand. The appendage seemed undamaged, yet the tingling sensation in his bones suggested otherwise.

Steadying his breath as best as he could as rocks fell around him, Mowgli looked at the notification before him.

Constitution Saving Throw: 8 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) = 10

Failure!

Shaking his head a couple times Mowgli psyched himself up to try again.

Before suddenly rolling to the side as a stone crashed down upon where he had just been laying.

Dexterity Saving Throw: 15 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) = 17

Success!

Bracing his body with his hands, Mowgli forced himself to stand in a half crouch as he made his way back to the altar. Throwing his leg over the side of it, Mowgli stood up fully before the rift.

Ignoring the pain in his injured shoulder, Mowgli reached up with both hands before boring them simultaneously into the dimensional rip.

Clenching his hands, Mowgli took a series of rapid shallow breaths to deliberately hyperventilate himself before he carried on with his task. It thankfully didn't take much actual effort of strength to pull the Aether, but it seemed that the act of doing so angered it into attacking the offending assailant.

It was if he wasn't so much as grabbing the Aether with his hands, but rather using his hands as a conduit to grab the Aether with his very identity.

His identity as a Faunus.

His identity as a Human.

His identity as a ruler.

His identity as a servant.

His identity as a Soul.

…

He pulled.

Mowgli hissed in agony through gritted teeth as he felt blood fill his mouth from where his teeth were being forcibly shoved back into his gums.

Damage Taken: 1 Bludgeoning = 1 Damage

Feeling his nerves pulse in agony, Mowgli did his best to force the pain into locking his hands closed around the Aether as he began to lean backwards.

Constitution Saving Throw: 17 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) = 19

Success!

Pop

The noise was uncharacteristically quiet for what it represented, but the pop was heard all the same as Mowgli felt the resistance give away as he yanked the excess Aether free from the rift.

Landing on his back with his head banging against the floor, Mowgli winced in pain as he focused on his hands.

Damage Taken: 3 Bludgeoning = 3 Damage

The chromatic miasma weaved between his finger tips in a sentient manner, similar to an octopus pulled from the ocean.

Keeping a firm hold upon it, Mowgli slowly brought it closer and closer to his chest. Nearing his amulet to Mystra, the Aether's tendrils reached out lazily towards it, grazing across the metal. Gently pushing against his chest, the Aether gradually lost form and seemed to melt away before him until…

Devout Worship of the Temple of Malik the Sunderer Gained!

…

Quest: Aether Alert (Bastard Brothers)

Objective: Discover and deal with the Aether Build-ups in Vacuo. [1/3]

Reward: Amulet Upgrade and the next quest in the Bastard Brothers quest chain.

Mowgli sighed in relief and let all the energy leave his body as his arms fell to his sides, "Oh thank fuck that's over."

"Mowgli! Come on! We have to go!" Mowgli was brought out of his reverie by Noémie's voice in his ears and hands tugging at him to get up.

Hauling him upwards, Noémie began pulling the both of them towards the staircase leading out of the chamber only for Mowgli to pull the both of them back at the last second.

Noémie screamed at him in anger and confusion, "What the fuck are you doi-"

Boom!

One of the pillars of them room came crashing downwards onto the bridged staircase, shattering the whole thing in an explosion of rock and dust.

Dexterity Saving Throw: 12 (Rolled) + 2 (Dex. Mod.) = 14

Success!

"What the hell was that?" Noémie asked as they began maneuvering to one of the other staircases.

"Remember that thing about the dungeon being in the shape of a giant spider? Well, there's eight pillars in this room. Make of that what you will." Mowgli explained as the massive golem in the shape of a spider roared from above them. The room trembling and crumbling apart in response.

"I hate everything." Noémie confided as they began to sprint up the other staircase, the spider golem swiping haphazardly across the room as they did so.

Making their way towards the doorway, Mowgli and Noémie cautiously watched as the 'ceiling' of the room descended, revealing itself to be the body of the spider golem.

"How the fuck does that thing even move? It must be at least three hundred feet tall." Noémie questioned with astonished fear as she moved even faster.

"Magic." Mowgli answered simply as they both leapt over a hole in the catwalk.

Reaching the doorway, Noémie threw it open and dashed through.

Following less than a second behind her, Mowgli had only a moment's feeling of dread to warn him as the spider flung one of its legs forward towards his retreating form.

The magically animated limb of stone slammed into the stone door, causing it to launch forward faster than Mowgli could make his way through.

Mowgli felt his shield become hooked on something as he tried moving forward, before his arm was suddenly yanked backwards alongside it, both of them catapulting in response to the golem's attack until…

Slam!

Crunch!

"AGHHH!" Mowgli's cry of anguish echoed through the small chamber as he felt his shield arm shatter as it was pinned between the heavy stone door and its frame.

Damage Taken: 37 Bludgeoning = 37 Damage

Mowgli's final view before everything went black was the horrified look on Noémie's face as she turned back to him at the sound of his scream.

…

There was only darkness.

Then, the sound of rolling plastic.

A D20 came to rest at his feet amongst the shadow of emptiness.

Reaching down with two completely uninjured hands, Mowgli cupped the small die in his grasp.

Rotating it upon his palms, Mowgli found that the die was mostly unassuming, save for the replacement of the 1 side and the 20 side. The 1 was now a picture of skull, while the 20 was a heart.

'So this is death saving throws.' Mowgli realized hollowly as he gazed out upon the darkness. 'I guess if I want to, I can stay here forever, stuck with only my thoughts.'

Trying to bring up his system screen, Mowgli was disappointed when nothing appeared, "Worth a shot."

No one responded.

"Well, I can't perish on the first throw, so, might as well." Mowgli spoke aloud, feeling oddly calm about all of this. He chalked it up to his mind doing its best to feel apathetic about the situation in order to avoid a complete mental break.

Mowgli tossed the D20 up and down in his hand a few times before lobbing it a few feet away from him.

"16." The darkness announced as the rolling object came to rest upon the ground.

Mowgli watched in wonder as a glowing orb of light suddenly manifested before him. Stepping forward to grasp it, Mowgli watched in fascination as it moved in tandem with him, always just out of reach as it began to revolve around him.

It was as he lowered his hand back down that Mowgli realized he now held the D20 in his grasp once more.

Taking a deep breath, Mowgli let a bit of relief flood his chest once he concluded that he wasn't seeing things wrong and that he had succeeded in the first death saving throw.

'Come on Mowgli, just keep rolling 10s and above, you just need two more.' Mowgli hyped himself up, before throwing the piece of plastic once more into the black abyss.

"14." Once again, the void called out the result and another orb of light emerged to revolve around Mowgli.

"Yes!" Mowgli let himself cheer in joy as luck once again came to his aid.

Mowgli looked towards his hand expecting the D20 to reappear, but it didn't.

A flash of red.

Mowgli blinked as his vision refocused from the bright light. Looking down at his hand once again, Mowgli found that there was a glowing line of red running across his pinky and ring finger on his right hand.

Looking up, Mowgli saw that there were now an orb of red light following behind the two white ones.

Mowgli's mind raced as he tried to piece together what had occurred, before he eventually landed on the conclusion that he had been attacked while he was unconscious, hence the automatic failure of a death saving throw.

"Fuck!" Mowgli swore in frustration, "Alright, this is still salvageable, I can still roll low one more time before I really need to worry."

'Or you could roll a 1 and it'd all be over then and there.' A traitorous part of his mind reminded him.

Mowgli closed his fist and then reopened it, the D20 appearing within his hand.

Not wanting to risk changing his luck, Mowgli tossed the die as casually as he did the first two times.

"6." The darkness announced impartially, as a red orb of light began to circle Mowgli.

Mowgli closed his eyes in disappointment, "Fuck me…"

Opening them, Mowgli looked towards his hand expecting the piece of plastic to be sitting there, taunting him with the thought of his demise.

Instead, he was faced with a notification from his system.

Noémie's Medicine Check: 18 (Rolled) + 2 (Prof. Bonus) = 20

Success!

His vision faded once again.

…

"-wgli! Mowgli! Wake up!" A voice called out through the haze of Mowgli's perception as he felt his eyes open slightly.

"Noémie?" Mowgli asked, feeling far more tired than he had ever felt before.

"Thank the Brothers!" Noémie called out habitually, forgetting their earlier conversation about the two gods. Mowgli felt himself be lifted upwards as Noémie pulled him onwards through the chamber with all the doors.

She quickly pulled him along with her as she yanked back the door they had come in through, only to find a wall of stone engraved with various glyphs and texts in old Vacish.

"What the hell?" Noémie asked the wall angrily as she tried pushing it down.

"The rift is closing; everything is going back to the way that it was. The original temple is resurfacing." Mowgli concluded through the haze that was his mind at the moment.

Almost as if the temple was responding to his words, the pair felt the stone around them rumble before several of the walls were suddenly replaced with more of the original temple.

Mowgli was looking around when he felt himself fade from consciousness once again.

…

Opening his eyes, he found himself in a new room, about 10 by 20 feet in size, there was only a door leading into it, and nothing else.

"Dammit! I was certain that they went through this way." Noémie swore to herself, seemingly not noticing that he was once again awake.

'We're in the room the Grimm used to leave the temple.' Mowgli realized vaguely as another thought came to his mind, 'There was Transmutation magic coming from this room, wasn't there?'

Mowgli tried to pull himself up, but only felt his vision start turning to black once again. Burning through all his remaining willpower, Mowgli stayed conscious. 'I'm out of spell points.' Mowgli acknowledged as Noémie sprinted back over to the door leading into the room.

Mowgli looked at her confusedly until he realized she was shoving her body weight against it as several spider legs were shoving their way through the gap.

Grimm spiders both large and small were throwing themselves against the door.

'Big and small.' Mowgli realized slowly, 'I don't need a big spell. I need a cantrip.'

Mowgli turned back to the blank wall on the opposite side of the room to the door, his head barely staying upright from where his upper body was sat upright against one of the walls in the room, the stone bracing him from falling right down into the dirt where his lower half laid.

"Thaumaturgy." Mowgli casted, with his voice barely above a whisper.

The spell had many uses such as coloring flames, making them brighter, making someone's voice louder, making his eyes look different, and most importantly for now: It could open unlocked doors.

The wall shifted in a manner that Mowgli felt was definitely copyright infringement on the entrance to Diagon Alley from Harry Potter. Yet nonetheless, bright light from the Vacuo Sun began to spill into the room as the doorway opened, letting sand leak into the room.

Noémie turned away from the door as she felt the warmth of the Sun on her back. Looking over in surprise to the now open door, she turned to Mowgli in time to see him give her a shaky thumbs with his unbroken arm.

Mowgli felt his eyelids become heavy once more.

…

The roar of engines brought him back from the depths of his unconscious mind.

Mirroring how his day began, Mowgli found himself surrounded by APCs and other military vehicles as soldiers hopped out and charged past him and Noémie. A subconscious part of his mind realized that they were probably heading towards the temple to secure it and that he should be worried on whether or not the rift had fully closed yet, but he found himself too exhausted to care.

Mowgli found himself suddenly pulled forward, as his aunt clutched him against her chest, "Thank the Light you are safe!"

"Hey Aunty," Mowgli called out to her with the last of his strength, "don't tell mom."

---

A Fun Non-Canon Add-on, cause I was bored and high:

"What do you mean that you don't know ACDC?!" Mowgli asked her, appalled by her response.

"I've never heard of them, they must be niche, everyone I know listens to Volt Switch." Noémie answered easily.

"How can you not know of ACDC? They wrote 'Highway to Hell'." Mowgli tried explaining to her.

Noémie scrunched her brows together in confusion, "Do you mean 'Freeway to Fire', by Volt Switch?"

Mowgli felt his jaw drop in abject horror, "'Bad Boy Boogie'?"

"'Good Girl Galop'." Noémie corrected once again.

"'Back in Black'?"

"'Return to Rayless'."

"'T.N.T.'?"

"'C4'."

"Fucking 'Thunderstruck'?!" Mowgli shouted in broken dejectedness.

"Are you talking about 'Lightningblasted'?" Noémie tilted her head uncertainly at him.

"God Dammit this whole reality is a crime against nature!" Mowgli massaged his temples in disgust.

"Easy… Easy, we can just listen to a different band, okay?" Noémie held her hands up placatingly.

"Fine, what about Imagine Dragons?" Mowgli offered.

Noémie pursed her lips nervously, "You mean Hypothetical Lizards?"

"Fuck!"

---

Stat Sheet:

Name: Mowgli De Coquina Belladonna

Alignment: Lawful Good

Race: Faunus (lynx)

Background: Noble

Class/Classes: Arcana Cleric 5

Character Level: 6 (Exp: 17,465/23,000)

Inspiration: [X]

Proficiency Bonus: +3

AP: 0/50 (1 Aura Point = 2 HP)

HP: 0/38 = 8 (Base) + 10 (2 Con. Mod. X 5 Level(s)) + 20 (5 X 4 Levels over 1st)

Hit Dice: 5D8 (1D8 Per Level)

AC: 16 = 14 (Scale Mail) + 2 (Dex. Mod.)

Initiative Bonus: +4 = 2 (Dex. Mod.) + 2 (Racial Trait: Tufts of Terror)

Resistances: Cold

Speed: 30ft

Darkvision: 60ft

Passive Perception: 20 = 10 (Base) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) + 6 (Expertise Bonus)

Saving Throw Proficiency: Wisdom and Charisma

Strength: 0 (10)

Dexterity: +2 (14)

Constitution: +2 (14)

Intelligence: +2 (14)

Wisdom: +4 (19)

Charisma: +2 (14)

Skill Proficiency: History, Insight, Perception (Expertise), Aura Use (Expertise), and Persuasion.

Tufts of Terror: Lynx Faunus, like their animal counterpart, can easily be identified by their adorable tufts of fur that stick straight up on both ears. These tufts are not without reason though, they act as a unique hearing aid that increases the already boosted hearing capabilities of normal Faunian ears, to a whole new level (Advantage on all Perception checks utilizing hearing and +2 to Initiative. Vulnerability to Thunder Damage).

Aura Attacks: +2D4 Radiant Damage to Damage rolls (Cost: 3 AP)

Channel Divinity: Turn Undead and Arcane Abjuration

Spell Attack Bonus: +7 = 4 (Wis. Mod.) + 3 (Prof. Bonus)

Spell Save DC: 15 = 8 (Base) + 4 (Wis. Mod.) + 3 (Prof. Bonus)

Cantrips: Light, Sacred Flame, Thaumaturgy, Hand of Radiance, Guidance (Cast once per long rest), Mage Hand (Cast once per long rest), Blade Ward (Always Prepared), and Firebolt (Always Prepared).

Spell Points: 0/47 = 27 (Level) + 20 (Summer Maiden Powers)

Prepared 1st Level Spells (Casting Cost: 2): Find Familiar (Can be Cast for No Cost once per Long Rest), Detect Magic (Domain Spell: Always Prepared), Magic Missile (Domain Spell: Always Prepared), Identify (Piety Spell: Always Prepared), Burning Hands (Maiden Spell: Always Prepared), Warding Wind (Maiden Spell: Always Prepared), Ice Knife (Maiden Spell: Always Prepared), Witch Bolt (Maiden Spell: Always Prepared), Cure Wounds, Guiding Bolt, and Protection from Evil and Good.

Prepared 2nd Level Spells (Casting Cost: 3): Magic Weapon (Domain Spell: Always Prepared), Nystul's Magic Aura (Domain Spell: Always Prepared), Spiritual Weapon, Prayer of Healing, and Continual Flame.

Prepared 3rd Level Spells (Casting Cost: 5): Dispel Magic (Domain Spell: Always Prepared), Magic Circle (Domain Spell: Always Prepared), Counterspell (Piety Spell: Always Prepared), Fireball (Maiden Spell: Always Prepared), Fly (Maiden Spell: Always Prepared), Call Lightning (Maiden Spell: Always Prepared), Revivify, Remove Curse, and Spirit Guardians.

Prepared 4th Level Spells (Locked Due to Level Requirement): Ice Strom (Maiden Spell: Always Prepared).

Currency: 11,392Lien ; 11 Gold Pieces

Attuned Items: [Ring of Warmth] [Empty Slot] [Empty Slot]

Inventory: Amulet, 4x Fine Clothes, 19x Crossbow Bolts, "Crackdown" Light-Crossbow/Mace Hybrid, Scale Mail, Signet Ring, Luggage, Tinderbox, Silver Bar, Ring of Warmth, Shroud of Sand, Poison Phase Spider Fangs, Climbing Hook and Rope, and Waterskin

Proficiencies: Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields, Remnant The Game, and Simple Weapons.

Languages: Vytalian (Common), Vacish (Draconic), Valean (Elvish), and Mistralian (Orcish).

---

AN: Thanks for reading this chapter, its great to be back and I hope you enjoyed it.

Please leave a review, even if its negative, it still inspires me to write more!