Soul Merger

"Where are they?" Alissa muttered to herself as she fiddled with the lock she'd salvaged recently. She didn't expect the entire group to sit around in the house all day, but it was weird everyone was missing.

She felt the lock click into place and turned her attention back to picking it. The thing was a six tumbler affair with some interesting tricks in the metalwork. But in the end it was still just a lock. A good twist and it popped open. It was good practice at least. She'd have to keep an eye out for some of the tricks that could have had traps attached to them when down in the labyrinth.

Fili put down her pen and looked out the window where the light through the clouds was greying. "They should be back soon. Let's prepare dinner for everyone."

"Suppose we can. Maybe I can use it to guilt them out of some of the 'I told you so's." Alissa walked over to the icebox and looked around. "Hm, fried rice, maybe?"

"If there's leftover rice, sure."

Alissa handled most of the prep, while Fili did the bits that didn't require food contact. Within a few minutes the meal was done and left to warm.

Not too long later their friends arrived, Rosalina leading the way looking far too serious. Alissa was afraid she didn't want to know why, but she probably needed to. "Good evening."

"Well it's an evening at least." Rosalina flopped into a chair. "You two lovebirds got lucky. You skipped filling out dozens of forms for the delver's guild!"

Fili shook her head. "Rosalina gets served last for stealing our announcement."

"What! That's blatant retaliation!" The dragon woman huffed in mock indignity. "Just for that I'm going to draw out the explanation!"

Kotori on the other hand looked a little worried. "Um, was it supposed to be a secret? Because I kinda heard and...."

Alissa felt herself flush, while Fili was likely turning pink again. That bird apparently had good hearing. "Don't worry about it." Or talk about it, she added mentally. "Anyway! Yes we started dating. We figured we should mention it, since it matters for the team."

"Appreciated, and congratulations" Clara said as she took a seat. "Glad someone got something good out of today."

Alissa grabbed some plates and started serving with Fili's help. "Is it that bad? You make it sound like we're being taken to court, or another Rampage is starting up."

"There've been several kidnappings, and we think the victims have been dragged into a breach," Akari said quietly. That killed the mood rather dead.

Alissa finished serving then sat down. "Okay. We'll wanna start at the top."

"Sure," Rosalina said. "You two were off having fun, so I grabbed everyone else for a little trip to visit an orphanage. And then..."

They listened as Rosalina recounted what had happened after. Alissa felt her guts twist at the mention of missing kids. And the signs of kidnapping next to a demon breach only made it worse. She was glad they chose something easy to stomach because she wasn't as hungry as she had been a few minutes ago.

"Anyways after that we went to the guild and reported it and they had us fill out a bunch of forms so they could justify spending a great deal of money hiring guards to lock up the place before sealing the breach off," Rosalina finished. "After that we confirmed that everything was going to be terrible and came back to give you the bad news."

Alissa looked at Fili. "Well I can't say I'm happy to hear it, but I'm not sure how it's super bad news for us. We aren't going to be going down searching." Alissa blinked at the long pause. "Wait, you can't seriously be considering going down there. We're not a heavy raid group. We've never intentionally gone to the fourth layer, much less the fifth of any labyrinth."

"No one else is going to go," Akari said quietly.

"What?!" Alissa and Fili both looked at the catgirl.

Akari's ears drooped. "The guild assumes most of the kids are dead. It's not like there's anyone rich or important to rescue. So they aren't going to put out anything bigger than the normal bounty. That means it's charity work."

"And of the three large charity groups that'd consider it, two are still in shambles," Clara said. "The Crimson Maidens are a wreck, and the Eagle Wings have packed up and moved North to reorganize. Leaving the Silver Order running around covering the holes. No one's going to go after those kids."

"Except us," Raiel stated solemnly.

Alissa shook her head. "Wait a second now. I appreciate the idea, but can we even do this? Like I said we're not really raid level material. We don't have the manpower to do a search, and we won't be able to do a deep delve."

"Most level fives would destroy us," Fili stated. "Unless it's a labyrinth with weaker monsters than normal, we'd just die for nothing. For that matter level four isn't great for us either."

"That's the good news!" Rosalina's fake cheer didn't improve the idea in Alissa's mind. "We're uniquely suited for this dungeon! It's the Luminous Seabird Labyrinth. Which means giant birds, sirens, and armored horrors."

Alissa leaned back. Those weren't the worst enemies to face. Sirens were dangerous, but there were plenty of tricks to defeat them. Armored horrors were terrible for her, but Ibaraki would crack them like oversized crabs, and she couldn't imagine all the pain Fili could unleash. Meanwhile giant birds were dangerous but less hardy than most large monsters, meaning they could pick them off at range.

Her thoughts were cut off by Fili groaning. "Oh no. It can't be...."

Alissa blinked in confusion along with the others and Clara nodded. "Yeah, figured you'd pick up on that too."

"Uh, pick up on what?" Kotori asked. "Is this some special surface thing?"

"Nah, history," Clara replied. "The Luminous Seabird Labyrinth is one of the labyrinths where we know what collapsed to form it. Specifically it's on the site where the Seahawk Arena was pre Fall."

Alissa's appetite somehow fell even lower. "You think this is the arena that monster was talking about," she stated.

"Hell of a coincidence if it isn't," Clara said. "An arena with all sorts of demonic nonsense attached to it? That'd be my bet."

"Shit." The thought rattled inside Alissa's head. Was that where she was being lured? And if so, why?

Eventually she shook her head to clear it. "It still sounds like suicide to me. I understand. I want to help. Hell I want to go just to stab that succubus if it is there. But we aren't capable of doing this alone."

"You're right about that," Akari said. "We need allies."

Rosalina smoothed her hair behind her horns. "Just because we're the only group that is available and willing to try doesn't mean there aren't others who won't help us get to the bottom. We aren't going to just charge in and die valiantly. We reach out to everyone else who cares, get as much support as possible, and make a damn good plan before going down."

Alissa took a deep breath. "Alright. I can agree to planning at least. If we can figure out something that isn't certain death I'm willing to try it."

"I'll ask my friends and see what the tower can offer," Fili said.

"Suppose I can send a message to my aunt," Alissa added. "I'm not sure if she can offer anything, but it's worth a shot." And it was more likely her aunt could help than any of her friends outside this group.

Clara nodded. "I'll hit up the merchants I know. Not likely to get much but maybe someone will offer a discount on gear."

"And we'll speak with the religious groups," Akari said, nodding to Rosalina.

"What do Raiel and I do?" Kotori asked, holding up a wing.

Rosalina gave a twisted grin. "Why something I'm sure everyone will love. You'll have to work with Alissa and Fili to master the techniques needed to help us!"

"What?" Alissa and Kotori said as one. She had no idea how she was going to train a bird.

"Our best options for survival are striking at the weaknesses of Rocs and Armored Horrors. And those weaknesses are 'sound' and 'light' respectively," Rosalina said, pointing to each. "Since the rest of us will be running around, you're the best person to teach them Alissa!"

"Joy," Alissa sighed. She didn't have the first idea how to train a human, much less a harpy and an angel.

But unfortunately the logic was correct. "Guess we'll have to figure out the details tonight. Fili can you help me with your monsterpedia?"

Fili brightened up, which made the mess almost worth it. "Of course!"