Gacha Leveling

Chapter 195 - 56 – The Harp of Dagda 4

Cathbad stopped in front of Dagda’s statue and watched it closely in reverence."You humans got his visage quite well." He praised the artwork.

"They did, didn’t they? He looks exactly like the old man." Ffyr commented in a high pitch.

"Old man? Have some respect for the king!" Cathbad admonished her.

"Mom calls him that." Ffyr protested.

"Who is your mother to call him with such disrespect?" The Cait Sith asked with anger in his voice.

"Mom? Titania." Ffyr shrugged as if it didn’t mean anything.

"Titania? The..." Cathbad was flabbergasted. "As in the queen of the Fae? The fairy mother? The first spirit?"

"I didn’t know that one. The first spirit." Ffyr said. "Guess mom is really old." She giggled.

The Cait Sith looked to Matthew hoping it wasn’t true, but Matthew just nodded at him.

"You’re royalty?" He said in disbelief.

"I don’t know about that..." Ffyr thought out loud.

"She’s not." Paula intervened. "The Fae don’t have such things."

"Can we get moving?" Claudio protested impatiently.

"We should." Matthew agreed.

"You guys must really worship the Tuath Dé here." Cathbad said, walking on all his legs and looking at all the people and buildings around while moving towards the dungeon gate.

They all looked at each other unsure on how to explain that the adventurers there were only there to gather mana crystals from the dungeon and not really pray for the gods.

After entering the dungeon, the Cait Sith looked around with wide eyes. The others all smiled nervously thinking it would disprove the hunting in the dungeon, but instead, it praised them:

"Look at how many of you are here culling the shadows! You are really dedicated!"

"The shadows?" Matthew asked.

"Yes! Those things." Cathbad pointed at the monster simulacrums.

"Why do you call them that?" Claudio suddenly took an interest in the conversation.

"Because they’re shadows of real creatures?" Cathbad answered as if it was obvious.

"Can you tell me why they are here? Wasn’t this graveyard created by the Tuath Dé?" Claudio inquired.

"It was. The gods created this place to honor the Harp. But the shadows always come in places like this." The cat explained.

"How so? Why couldn’t they just create a place like this without the shadows?" Claudio kept asking.

"I don’t know." Cathbad shrugged. "I can’t speak for the Tuath Dé."

"It’s also odd that this dungeon is here and not in Ireland." Michael noted.

"Ireland?" The Cait Sith asked.

"It’s an island where the Tuath Dé used to be worshiped thousands of years ago." Paula explained.

"And we’re not there?" Cathbad concluded.

"No. We’re far away." Paula said.

"Matt." Tylith called Matthew, grabbing his arm with force and interrupting the conversation.

"What is it?" He asked.

"I can feel demonic mana." She warned him and pointed to a hill. "Over there."

"Let’s go." Matthew said, running towards the hill with the others, but Claudio, following him.

From the top of the hill they could see three men drawing a huge circle on the grass.

"That looks like a summoning circle." Matthew said.

"They’re summoning demons?" Vanessa exclaimed.

Tylith recoiled.

Michael quickly drew his bow, he infused mana inside the arrow and let go aiming at one of the men.

The man he targeted, noticed them and managed to dodge the arrow that embedded in the floor and exploded damaging the circle.

The other two men returned fire by throwing fireballs at them.

They scattered while the fireballs exploded on the hills.

Vanessa ran at full speed downwards the hill, surprising Matthew. She was much faster than him, almost as fast as if he was using Unholy Mana to empower himself.

She easily dodged all the fire spells shot at her, and hit a precise kick on one of the men’s faces, making a tooth fly out of his mouth.

Michael kept shooting arrows downhill from high up, while Ffyr flew with Cathbad in her hands and dodged all the attacks against them.

Paula called her Ice Phoenix familiar, Lumi from out her ring who spread a mist of ice around the field, making it harder for fire spells to be cast.

At this time, Matthew reached one of the demon worshipers and placed a punch on his face.

The third man, covered his body in demonic mana enhancing the power of his spells and shooting fireballs at the air trying to hit Ffyr and Lumi.

The man fighting Vanessa also covered himself with demonic mana and drew a sword, forcing her to draw her daggers to fight him. His strength was now overwhelming her, but she had holy mana covering her weapons and was extremely fast for her level.

They traded blows in fast succession, while Matthew held the face of the man he was fighting against the ground and purified him, taking away his demonic mana.

Michael hit an arrow on the man trying to shoot Ffyr and Lumi down which explosion sent him flying backwards. Lumi quickly went down on the man and encased him inside ice.

Paula then cast Strength Up on Vanessa, giving her an edge against her opponent. Against the holy mana coating her daggers, the man’s Vital Shield was as weak as butter. She slashed through his belly and, when he screamed in pain, disarmed him and pinned him against the floor.

Claudio arrived as soon as the battle was over. The three men were now obediently sitting on the floor, all three purified from demonic mana and with their minds controlled by Matthew’s Entice skill.

"Hiding again?" Matthew stabbed at him.

"I’m not a fighter." Claudio dismissed his remark. "Besides, your party is quite strong. You don’t really need my help in fighting."

"Coward." Tylith gnarled, but Claudio just ignored her.

"Have they told you anything?" Claudio asked, looking at the three men. They were healed from their wounds.

"I’m afraid to ask." Matthew said, remembering what happened with the last one.

"Do you know any of these runes?" Paula asked Claudio, interrupting them.

"Looks like demonic seals. But none in particular." He answered and turned to Tylith. "The succubus might know."

"I don’t." Tylith was cold.

Matthew sighed and turned to the demon cultists.

"What were you doing?" He asked them.

"We were preparing the summoning circle." One of the men replied.

"To summon whom?" Paula asked.

"Valac." He said.

"The mocker." Tylith added. "She’s a president. Commands 30 legions in Luxuria."

"Why her?" Matthew asked.

"Valac can find hidden treasures. She’ll help us find the harp."

"There are more of you here?" Michael asked.

"Yes. Our leader is further inside searching for the tomb."

"How many more?" Matthew asked.

"26."

"I don’t think we can face 26 of them." Vanessa was realistic.

"We can’t let them get to the Harp!" Cathbad protested.

"He’s right, we have to stop them." Matthew said and looked at Claudio. "Can’t you bring reinforcements from your guild?"

"Most of them are in Southport. The ones we have here are too weak to help. They only do administrative work." Claudio shrugged.

"And what about the other warriors fighting the shadows? Call upon them." Cathbad pleaded.

"I don’t know if they’re strong enough." Paula noted. "Most of them are under level 20. To face Impiomancers..."

"Paula and I are level 21. It’s dangerous even for us." Michael said.

"Are you just letting them take the Harp?" Cathbad hissed at them.

"No. We’re thinking." Vanessa said.

"I’ll call the Tower." Claudio sighed. "If you can stall the cult from finding the harp, I can fly a unit in by helicopter."

"How long?" Matthew asked.

"A couple of hours? Maybe more." Claudio shrugged.

"Do it." Vanessa said. "Take these 3 to the cops."

"Can’t they help? The police?" Tylith asked.

"This city is too small. The police don’t have an adventurer unit here." Vanessa explained.

"The three of you. Go outside and surrender yourselves to the police. Tell them what’s happening here." Matthew ordered.

The three men got up and left the dungeon with Claudio.

Meanwhile, the group walked further inside the dungeon searching for the cult.

With Michael’s Boost Hearing, Vanessa’s Sense Others and Tylith’s sensing, they found the cult in under 20 minutes.

They were all camped around a lake. Some were cooking, others were talking and drinking, some were fending off monster simulacrums from the camp.

Matthew, Vanessa, Paula, Michael, Ffyr, Tylith, Cathbad and Lumi stayed far away from them, but kept a close eye on their numbers.

"They found the entrance." The Cait Sith hissed.

"Entrance?" Matthew asked.

"To the Harp’s resting place." It explained. "But they don’t seem to know how to get in."

"It’s in the lake?" Paula asked.

"No. Just the entrance is on the lake. The Harp rests in the sky." Cathbad said.

They all looked up and didn’t see anything.

"You need to call its names to open the way." Cathbad said.

"If they don’t know how to get in, we’re in luck." Michael said.

"But they’re still too close. We don’t know how long we have until they figure it out." Vanessa warned them.

"What do we do?" Paula thought out loud.