Deformation

A chill settled over the room as the priest laid on the floor, blood pouring profusely out of the large gash across his body. Roko turned towards the other cultists who all reeled back with looks of terror and fear.

"Who's next?" Roko asked as he shouldered his sword.

A roar of screams erupted as the cultists all turned around and began to flood out of the room. In only a few seconds, Roko was left alone in the ritual hall. Roko collapsed onto the ground, exhausted, and looked up at the chandeliers where Melia's still unconscious body held suspended in the air.

"How am I going to get you down now?" Roko sighed.

Off the corner of his eyes, Roko could see some kind of light shining. Turning his head, Roko could see the book that the priest was still holding onto was glowing, light coming off from its cover and between the pages. Roko stood up, perturbed by this peculiar change until the tentacles reared up and began attacking him again.

"What the-" Roko cried as he stumbled back, trying to parry the tentacles as they attacked him, "What's going on now?!"

Roko tried to defend himself but the tentacles took him by surprise and managed to grab him and lift him into the air, pinning his arms to his side. As he was lifted, Roko could see the black eldritch blood that had splattered over the priest beginning to absorb itself into the priest's body, slowly closing the lethal wound that Roko had inflicted.

"Oh what's this garbage now?!" Roko cried in frustration as the priest's body floated up and righted itself onto the ground.

"Aaaahhhh..." The priest sighed as his wound sealed without any sign of a scar. His body seemed to grow more muscular, his face grew tighter and his hair turned white. He opened his eyes which now almost seemed to glow with an unnatural light as he turned to face Roko, "It's a shame but it seems your efforts were in vain."

"Yeah well give me another shot and I'll make sure there's nothing left from which you can come back from." Roko scowled.

"Fufufu. I feel bad for you. For our great God has deemed it fit to award me with a wondrous blessing. I can now recover from any injury you can inflict on me. So long as the miraculous blood of our great God flows through me, I am effectively immortal."

"And how much of your soul did you have to sacrifice to do that?" Roko scoffed.

"What did a soul mean to a man who was dying anyway?" The priest sneered, "Now I am evolved. Stronger and evolved. Look at this body." The priest flexed his new muscles.

"Frankly, excessive muscles are disgusting to me." Roko said.

"You're just jealous because you could never even stick to a diet."

"I never had to diet." Roko said as he struggled against the binding tentacle, "Now let me go."

"You really think I would just let you go after all that?"

"I figured you'd want to kill me yourself with your new body."

"Hmmm...tempting but as I am now...these tentacles are a part of my body."

The priest squeezed his hand and slowly the tentacles began to tighten and crush Roko's body. The sound of Roko's bones popping and cracking echoed in his skull as pressure began to build up in his head. Distantly, Roko could hear the priest laughing manically as he slowly reveled in his torturous murder.

"Ice!"

The priest stumbled as a blast of ice hit him in the back of the head, releasing Roko from his bondage and falling to the ground with a painful thud.

"Stop right there!"

The priest turned around and standing on top of the stairs to the room, finger pointed at him, was Helena with Roland at her side, weapons ready.

"The princess?!" The priest cried and hurriedly turned around to put his hood back on.

"It's too late." Helena called, "I've seen your face, Bedlam."

The priest, Bedlam, scowled, "Well...no matter. We'll just have to speed up our plans a bit."

"Do tell, what kind of plan is this?" Helena asked as Roland carefully came down the stairs, "And does your brother know about all this?"

"Hmm..." Bedlam rubbed his chin, "I think I'll refuse to comment on that."

"So he does know then."

"Think what you like." Bedlam sneered, "But do you really think you can defeat me?"

Bedlam raised his arm and all his tentacles rose to attention.

"Ice."

Helena blasted the ground around the altar with a volley of ice spells, covering the magic seal on the floor. The tentacles shrieked weakly as they slowly began to disappear.

"Yeah." Helena pointed her finger back at Bedlam, "I think I like these odds."

"Hm." Bedlam said, bemused, "Guess this would be a good time to retreat."

"Don't you want to stick around?" Helena smiled coyly with a tilt in her head, "I'm sure I could prove useful to whatever you little cult is trying to do."

"Oh, no doubt." Bedlam smirked, "But capturing the reigning princess of an entire country, no matter how rare the opportunity, is just more risk than we need."

"How responsible of you."

"Trust me. If our god wanted you, I would be sticking around."

"Now I feel disappointed." Helena smirked, "But how exactly do you think you're getting out of here?"

"I would explain to you but..." Bedlam bowed as the space behind him ripped apart into a void that seemed to connect to nothing, "You wouldn't understand."

"Roland!"

Roland charged at Bedlam but he simply stepped through gate and disappeared as space mended itself, leaving them all alone in the room.

"You okay, Roko?" Helena asked as she helped Roko get up.

"How are the captives?" Roko coughed as he steadied himself on his feet.

"Roswell's getting them out right now." Helena explained, "We saw the huge flood of cultists escaping and they led us right to the exit. Slow process though. None of them would wake up so Roswell's literally picking them up one by one. I came up to call the police here so they should be here to help any moment. I didn't see Melia though."

"She's up there." Roko pointed upwards.

Helena turned her head up, "HOW THE HELL DID SHE GET THERE?!"

"I put her there. Better than letting her get in the way of the battle."

"...How are we going to get her down?"

"That was reckless." The police chief looked very cross as his officers pulled the kidnapped girls out of the underground. The exit that Helena talked about lead right to an apothecary in a ritzy part of Aporia. As far as Roko could tell, the proprietor was gone, probably scared off when the other cultists burst out of their basement. Whenever or not they were involved with them was still unknown but with all the cultists gone there was no information they could gain.

"You're telling me a bunch of robed cultists burst out of a store and ran off into the city and NONE of them were caught?" Roland growled.

"Well maybe we could have caught some of them if we were informed about this and set up a PERIMETER!"

"It's fine." Helena sighed, "We were here to rescue the girls to begin with."

"How's Melia by the way?" Roswell asked.

"Well we managed to get her down from the chandelier." The chief sighed, "God knows how she got there to begin with."

Everyone turned to look at Roko.

"What?" Roko frowned, "I'm not explaining myself again."

"She's still unconscious." The chief continued, "Whatever they did to those girls, it seems like it will take a while for them to wake up. They've been put in care of the nearby hospital. Thankfully this is the Cantor District so the hospital is very well equipped and advanced so they'll all be in good hands."

"When can we see them?" Roswell asked.

"Assuming they don't wake up anytime soon, probably at least three days later. Between cleaning them up and investigating what exactly happened to them, you'd be lucky if you do manage to see your friend that soon."

Roswell looked a tad disappointed but Roland placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "She'll be up before you know it. Come on. We've done a lot today. Let's go take a well deserved break."

"I'm the only one who did any fighting today though." Roko muttered, "Isn't there something wrong with this picture?"

After a night's rest, Roko was feeling much better though some fatigue still lingered at the corners of his body. After grabbing breakfast from the castle's mess hall, Roko set off to try and find Helena and Roland again to see if there were any updates in the conditions of the girls they rescued. Instead, he found Helena following after her sister in the castle yard, the two of them in a fierce argument. Roko approached them carefully.

"I'm not saying you need to not see him anymore, I'm just saying you need to be careful!" Helena cried.

"Where do you get off telling me how to go about my love life?" Diana scoffed, "What do you care about it anyway? You certainly didn't seem to care about him that much last I checked."

"I'm telling you he could be dangerous! Look, if you're not going to stay away from him, just...keep an eye on him! He could be up to something!"

"Daniel would never hide anything from me! You're insane!"

"No, you don't get it he-"

"I certainly do not! And if you keep this up, I'll have to have a word with our parents about your recent activities!"

"But-"

"Good bye, Helena!"

Diana stormed off, towards the castle exit, leaving Helena standing there with a frustrated and conflicted look on her face. As she turned to leave, she noticed Roko standing there and quickly walked up to him, fixing her appearance along the way.

"Hey." Helena sighed, "You saw that didn't you?"

"Can't say that's the first time you fought with your sister like that." Roko joked softly, "And it hasn't even been a week since I came here."

"Yeah. Well, it's been like that ever since we were kids."

"That's a long time to hate each other." Roko raised an eyebrow, "Don't go on family picnics much then?"

"I wish."

"Is there something I should know about her boyfriend? This certainly seems a bit out of nowhere."

"Yeah, you wouldn't know." Helena sighed, "But that priest you fought before? Bedlam?"

"Yeah. You seem to recognize him."

"That's because he's a noble." Helena explained, "I've seen him at parties but that was really it. Their family's pretty well off so I didn't think he'd be involved with the cult and that closely too."

"Where does Diana's boyfriend come into this?"

"Her boyfriend, Daniel, is Bedlam's half brother."

"Really?!" Roko cried.

"Yeah. It's a bit of a tragic story." Helena bit her lip. "Daniel's father abandoned him when he was a baby before he became noble and got married. From what I can tell, Daniel was an accident and he grew up never knowing about what happened to his parents. He's basically born a commoner but has ties to what is now noble blood. That is, if he even knows about all this. I don't think he does and neither does Diana it seems."

"But he could be lying."

"I've seen Daniel a few times before. I can count all my interactions with him on one hand but he seems really genuine and earnest. I can't see him lying to Diana about anything. If he knew he had technically noble blood, I'm sure he would have told Diana."

"But you think he might still be related?"

"Daniel's genuine but that's also why he's easily manipulated. If Bedlam knew about him, I can see him easily getting tricked into participating with the cult. Maybe not all too deeply but who knows what Bedlam might have him do."

"I see." Roko nodded, "That is troubling."

"I tried warning my sister but she wouldn't listen." Helena sighed, "As you clearly saw. I might be overreacting. The two might not even know about each other. But if Bedlam knew, I don't see him just leaving Daniel well alone."

"Is that so?" Roko mused.

"But maybe I went too far." Helena sighed as she looked back towards where her sister had stormed off.

"No, your concern was well founded and well intentioned, even if it wasn't welcomed. Just giving her the knowledge is enough to prevent more disastrous scenarios. What happens next is up to her."

"Diana is smart but these cultists are playing with some messed up magic." Helena scowled, "They could easily capture her with those powers."

"If they could use their magic to capture people they would have taken over the city." Roko explained, "From what I can tell, they have to capture girls the old fashioned way."

"What a relief." Helena said sarcastically, "Still, their magic really is unlike any that I've seen before. Summoning tentacles might be able to be done by creating a life like magical construct but those definitely were alive in some way. Not to mention how it somehow managed to revive Bedlam after getting such a large slash across his body. There's not healing magic like that that I know. And then there's the scariest thing."

"Scariest thing?"

"The teleportation rift. That was much cleaner than any gate that I've seen. Spatial magic and teleportation are highly complex magics to begin with. In fact, our school's president, Zakiel, is one of only a few to actually be be able to apply spatial magic. And Zakiel is one of the most skilled mages in the entire world."

"I did not know I lived in such a prestigious school."

"Did the princesses not tip you off?"

"You get used to it."

Before Helena could reply, her phone suddenly began ringing. Pulled her phone from her pocket, Helena looked at the number and frowned, "What the..." She accepted the call and spoke briefly with whoever was on the other end. Whatever was said, Helena's eyes suddenly widened and she asked if the speaker was sure before thanking them and hanging up the phone.

"Melia's awake." Helena said.

"Melia!"

Everyone looked up as Helena burst into the room with Roko, Roland and Roswell following after her.

"Who are you?!" One of the two people standing by Melia's bed cried, "How did you know she was awake?!"

"I'm going to need you two to leave for a moment." Helena said snappily at the two men. Both of them were dressed in casual wear instead of hospital clothes. One of them was holding a notepad so they were clearly not there to help treat her nor did they seem like relatives.

"Who do you thi-" One of them began to say angrily before his partner grabbed him by the shoulder and whispered in his ear. The man seemed to calm down a bit but continued to scowl as he and his partner bowed and left the room.

"How are you feeling, Melia?" Helena said as she put a basket that was half filled with fruit and half filled with sweets.

"H...Helena..." Melia replied blankly. She was not as emotionless as the ones Roko found in the cell, she in fact looked much healthier. If anything, she just seemed surprised to see Helena here and wasn't sure how to react to it.

"We went to a lot of lengths to rescue you, you know." Helena smiled, "Well, Roko did most of the work in your case."

"Do you remember anything?" Roko asked, "How you got captured? What happened to you?"

"I...I was talking to one of them..." Melia said her voice quivering a bit as she looked down, "And another one sneaked up behind me and...knocked me out. When I work up I...I was in this ritual and...and I blacked out so I...I..."

"It's okay." Helena said soothingly, "You're okay now."

"I'm sorry." Roswell looked down, "I wasn't there to protect you."

"I..." Melia bit her lip, unable to look Roswell in the eyes.

The door to the room opened and a doctor walked in and was surprised to see the group huddled around Melia.

"Who are you folk?" He frowned.

"Hi."

"Princess Helena?! Oh of course, Melia is your friend. My apologies."

"It's fine."

"What can you tell us about her condition?" Roko asked.

"This is..."

"A friend." Helena nodded, "Please, go on."

"Alright well...when she came in she was extremely malnourished. There were a lot of cuts and bruises all over her body though they were rather shallow and we managed to patch them up nicely."

"That's consistent with all the others we saved." Helena nodded.

"Oh you saved her, Princess Helena?" The doctor blinked, "That's good. I fear what would have happened if she remained in their captivity for any longer. For her and for her baby."

…

"I'm sorry..." Melia said blankly, "What did you say?"

"Hm? Y-Your baby? Did...did you not know?"