Elise and Yua were in a separate inn room from the others, having a conversation with their master.


    “Are you sure you don’t want to stop the ritual, sir?” Yua asked in an anxious tone. “As I’ve said many times, we don’t know how much power we will get. This could be a disaster for humankind.”


    It had been three days since they arrived at theke, and Vilja said they would do that ritual tonight. The wizard didn’t say why, but the others knew that she felt a great loss, not only to Henrik but to herrades. Perhaps, after sessfully carrying out thatst mission, the emotional bubble inside her, which she had been suppressing all this time, exploded.


    “I would very much like to exin the reason to the two of you. I’ve made a guess and discussed it with the other gods.” Raymund took a deep breath. “However, I will stick with Kimi’s words. This will work if you don’t know what’s really going on. It may sound absurd, but that’s how it is.”


    Yua looked at Elise, who also looked confused.


    “I hope your god still doesn’t tell you what really happened. If he were truly a god, he would have known.” Kimi appeared in the corner of the room, slightly surprising Raymund’s two servants. The petite elven woman knelt down and lowered her head. “Again, I beg you not to disturb the ritual. I can’t tell you the reason, or else everything will fail. I don’t want that to happen.”_.


    Both Elise and Yua couldn’t respond to anything. They could only see Kimi’s body shaking as she started to cry.


    “So, what should we do, Yua?” Finally, Elise opened her mouth.


    The kunoichi took a deep breath. “Well, we have no other choice. If we go against this woman’s request, we will die, after all.”


    “Trust me,” Raymund responded. “Even if Kimi didn’t threaten to kill you two, I’ll still ask you to let the ritual take ce.”


    ***


    That night Vilja chose a location some distance from the vige where they were staying. The blue-haired wizard was painting a magic circle onto the floor of a ruined building.


    From the remains of the wall, which was full of carvings of figures above the clouds and the humans worshiping it, Yua and Elise guessed that the ce was a former church or something. The building was among the elven-like houses in a semicircle that seemed to emerge from the ground. However, they looked unkempt, with weeds growing on them.


    Yes, a ce like that reminded Elise of the abandoned vige in the first mission. However, she felt normal this time. If a giant goblin came like that time, she would advance against it without hesitation.


    “It’s enough.” With puffy eyes, Vilja looked at the magic circle she had just made with chalk. It was much smaller than the one made to summon Jar’anig, with a diameter only as long as an average human’s height. However, the lines Vilja drew within the circle were much moreplicated.


    Marko brought a leather bag to that woman. Like the blue-haired wizard, Marko’s eyes also looked like they had shed many tears. The two of them had also rarely spoken since departing from the inn.


    Vilja then took out the items of the seven elements from that bag: a magically dried leg of a smander, Jar’anig’s dark bangle, a few strands of hair from a figure in theke that had been tied up, a twig from a titan mandrake, several scales of a river mermaid, a chunk of a natural golem king, andstly a ring with the element of wind forged by a legendary cksmith.


    For holy and dark items, they were wrapped in special pouches because the effects of the two would cancel each other out.


    The wizard ced the items to the sides of the magic circle, with holy and dark things ced opposite. After that, she stood in the center of the circle, spread out her arms, closed her eyes, and started chanting a spell.


    “Qyrdjowidane teimann faeind maezteqzny zystiletta, enn yiegie mide qyrdjowidane itzey, bjoteinn qyietin triste qeyltiaja meroqazinn zytte, doyfoettafaesty tiemia ef broujjae….”


    Vilja chanted the words that sounded just like gibberish for quite a while. Marko and the two women could only wait anxiously. The ritual was never performed by anyone, so they didn’t know what to expect.


    “…teimma rion faine leizaemiamn zannolein meirri?.”


    And finally, Vilja stopped chanting the spell. Nothing happened, but Marko signaled Raymund’s servants to back off. They, along with Mona and Kaine, then drifted away for a few dozen feet.


    “Anytime now.” The red-haired warrior hissed with an increasingly tense face.


    Mona and Kaine sat down, then let out a long howl. From a distance, several other canines responded with barks or howls. The sound of the night birds also echoed.


    “What’s that?” Elise pointed to a spot of light in the night sky. At first nce, that thing looks like an ordinary star, but it’s brighter and getting bigger.


    “Please.” Marko intertwined his fingers and closed his eyes. His teeth gritted as he held back the overflowing emotions. “Don’t let the sacrifices of Valtteri, Ari, Tilda, Minna, Elvira, and Henrik be in vain….” The young man choked, then looked at Elise and Yua. “Hey, your master is the god of hope, right? Can he make sure this will work?”


    “He can’t interfere directly with what’s going on here,” Yua answered without taking her eyes off the dot of light in the sky. “That’s why he sent us here.”


    “I see…” Marko looked at Vilja again.


    The wizard’s blue hair fluttered in various directions, though there was absolutely no wind there.


    “Sir.” Yua let out a very low hiss. Her hands were tightly clenched. “Now, or never… Maybe we can find a way to escape Kimi. This is for the sake of mankind.”


    “I-I agree, sir,” Elise added. “We have to do something. Before it’s toote.”


    Raymund only gave a short answer. “No.”


    And a few secondster, a stream of dazzling light fell upon the woman, shaped like a pir from the sky.