He pushed the door open and stepped through. Victoria silently followed, carefully holding onto the mana core.

  “Let’s get to work.” He grunted as he passed under the ivory wing of the statue. His back ached. “I hate those knights…” he complained, lowered himself on one knee and gestured at Victoria. “Give the core.”

  She carefully unwrapped the mana core, letting the cloak fall to the ground. It was warm to the touch when she gave it to him. “I can sense it. I’ll know if it doesn’t work.” She hesitated. “I think.” She added with a scowl. Tilting her head ever so slightly as if she was trying to hear something, she closed her eyes for a moment. “…I heard someone in Martin’s group say I was weird for being able to do what I do.”

  Alaric’s head jerked up. It was her sad voice more than her words that surprised him. “Who?”

  She shrugged. “Some woman. I don’t know her name. It doesn’t matter.” She gestured at the slot. “Will you try?”

  He watched her quickly hide her emotions behind a fragile smile of hope.

  “Let’s He carefully placed the mana core into the circle formed by the statue’s golden tail. It fit perfectly into the half-sphere recess beneath, settling in place with ease Its dull crimson colour slowly began to brighten. Around it, the silver-like metal rings etched with symbols and inscriptions took on a faint, pure white glow.

  Victoria’s face lit up. “It’s working!” she breathed, taking several quick steps back so she could see the pattern the circles formed. Alaric stepped back beside her just in time to see eight lines inlaid in the floor flare to life. Each one ran along a cardinal or secondary direction, vanishing into the walls, with the statue’s base—and the mana core—at their midpoint.

  YOU HAVE ACTIVATED THE SHRINE OF THE CHTHONIAN

  THE GOD BLESSES YOUR DOMAIN

  YOU HAVE LED TO THE CREATION OF NEW HALLOWED LAND

  YOU HAVE DRAWN THE ATTENTION OF MANY GODS

  YOU HAVE DRAWN THE IRE OF SOME DEMONS

  REWARDS GRANTED

  He waved the system message aside – he was in no state of mind to choose rewards right now, nor did they have the time. “Let’s see how far it extends.”

  They hurried back upstairs as fast as Alaric could walk, which, to be fair, was rather slowly. When they arrived at the ground floor, Victoria pointed at the walls. “Look, the same metal. It’s glowing here too.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Thick, sturdy lines of the same metal lined the walls of the entire hallway. The same lines ran between the floor tiles, some disappearing into the wall.

  “She lined the whole castle with these?” Victoria muttered in awe. She hurried outside, to the courtyard. Alaric slowly followed her.

  Even if it doesn’t extend far, it’s a safe place. We did it. We survived.

  He sat down on the stairs between the entrance and the courtyard. A wave of relief washed over him.

  “The border is the castle walls!” Victoria called out from the gate. “But that’s enough, right? It’s a big castle!”

  “More than enough.” Alaric said with a faint smile. He leaned against the column he was sitting next to. Tomorrow, they could start thinking about the water and food issues. He could check the Witch’s library on the very top floor of the castle’s tall tower. Maybe they would find out more about the Profaned Legion, the Empyrean, or even Sophia.

  “I assume this means it was a success?” Sarah’s voice startled him. He hadn’t even noticed her footsteps. “Come on, don’t sit here on bare stone. Are you trying to get sicker?” She took hold of his arm and, with Lochlan’s help, pulled him upright.

  Despite his brief protests, they led him upstairs to a spacious room. The large windows were shut, their dusty curtains drawn, and a door on the far wall opened out onto a wide balcony overlooking the courtyard.

  “I’d love to tell you to take a bath,” Sarah mused, “but we don’t have any tap water. I’ve set out a wet cloth and a small bucket. Give yourself a clean, then come back.” She guided him into the adjoining room and closed the door.

  “You could have let the guy just sleep.” He heard Lochlan’s voice through the door.

  “With all that blood and mud on him? On clean sheets? On an actual bed? Have you lost your mind and turned into a caveman or what?” Sarah asked in disbelief.

  There was a large washbasin in the room, as well as a tap that was out of order. Good news for Charles. At least the infrastructure for fresh water was there – they just needed to find out why it wasn’t working.

  Following Sarah’s instructions without much thought, he cleaned himself with the washcloth, then wrapped a towel around his waist before stepping out of the makeshift medieval bathroom.

  Sarah winced as soon as she saw him. “That wound does look nasty.”

  A single line of burnt skin circled his torso and arms. “…yeah. The knight really wanted me off the horse.”

  “Right.” She shook her head as if wanting to forget about that. “We found a few sets of clothes that’ll fit you. Here,” she pointed at a chair that had about half a dozen of shirts and tunics folded on top of it. “And here,” she pointed at the back of said chair, where several trousers hung. “And we found some simpler bedwear too, so you won’t sleep in the dirt you walk around in all day.” She smiled. “There’s enough clothes, rooms… pretty much everything for everyone. I even found clothes that’ll fit Arthur.”

  “Thanks, you didn’t need to do all this.”

  “Better than sitting here and doing nothing, right?” She glanced at Lochlan, who readily agreed. “Anyways, you’ve done enough. You need to rest. So put on that nightshirt… thing and go sleep.”

  His lips parted as he intended to protest, but as he glimpsed the soft bed with the corner of his eye, he simply nodded. “… yeah. I think I’ll take you up on that offer. Wake me up for dinner, please?”

  Sarah let out a bellowing laughter. “Sure thing.”

  Once they left and closed the door, he stumbled toward the linen nightshirt laid out on the bed. It was long enough to fall below his knees, the cloth soft and breathable. He set the towel aside, pulled the nightshirt on, and finally crawled into the soft, surprisingly fluffy sheets.

  Using a pillow to rest his head after so long felt weird at first. The mattress was firm and comfortable. He wrapped himself up in blankets, closed his eyes, and soon drifted off.