Member
@Laue (John); @ravenDivinity (Darius); @whist (Grant)
Despite John's regeneration, it appears that violent disembowelment is too severe an injury for him to recover from. If Grant and Darius had put him into one of the healing pods, perhaps he could have recovered, but they did not. As the two talk, John's heart finally stops due to the severe loss of blood.
However, this is not the end for John.
Just like the goddess had promised, it takes but a moment for John to reappear inside one of the healing pods, in a flash of purple light. Or, rather... It looks like a copy of John, while the original's corpse still lies on the ground as its blood continues to soak into the soil. The new John's clothes are even torn at the same places as the old one's, and stained with blood as well. Those who possess better sixth senses can feel that a vital energy of sorts is now absent from the previous John's body, and present in this new body instead. Perhaps this is the "reawakening" that the goddess spoke of, being transferred to a new body constructed by the healing pod.
John begins to return to consciousness. The memories of being gutted are still fresh in his mind, and a terrible exhaustion now suffuses every fiber of his being, even as the healing pod continues to restore his energy at this very moment. At this rate, it would take at least an hour for him to fully recover, if not more.
[Since @Grimoire hasn't even made his first post yet, here's what I'm going to do. You three, assume that only your characters are currently in the group right now, and Grimoire's character hasn't arrived yet. If he makes a post before you get too far from the shrine, he'll arrive then. Otherwise, he'll never arrive, and it'll be just you three in your group for now. If he makes a post later, he'll either arrive at the next shrine any of the groups discovers, or be in a group of his own.]
As Alison, Libé, and Rina take their first steps outside the shrine, they soon feel the gentle, cool breeze brushing against their skins. They're at the very edge of a forest, beyond which the wind comes from, and sweeps over the expanses of grassland. At the first glance, the trees here look relatively normal, without any glowing fruits or crystalline barks or any other gratuitously outlandish features. However, the leaves all seem to have a bluish hue, ranging from faint to vivid, laid over the usual green, and a lot of the leaves are strangely shaped, almost resembling clouds and wisps of wind. Some of them even seem to rustle when there's no actual wind.
The grassland gives a rather refreshing visage, with streams of sunlight passing through white clouds from the purple sky, bathing the grass in its gentle brilliance. The cool wind continues to blow there, and large irregular patches of the grass also have faint blue hues, similar to those of the trees. Occasionally, clumps of shrubbery, flowers, and some lone trees can be seen, breaking up the otherwise even landscape.
...and then there is the giant spider hanging in the air.
To be fair, this particular one isn't all that scary, as far as giant spiders go. The size of an adult human, its whole body is a clean, silky white, emitting a faint white sheen. Its eight round eyes glow an ethereal blue, as do the various arcane patterns covering its body. The spider is perched on a large web that appears to be attached to thin air, each individual strand made of shimmering, wispy translucent bluish white light, the same hue as the spider's glowing eyes.
The spider gazes at the humans with curiosity. After a moment of thinking, it makes a swift leap over the humans' heads. Numerous strands of light trail behind the spider, spontaneously forming into webs as the creature passes through the air. It then makes another leap at a different angle, forming another series of webs. The spider appears to be making a web cage of some sort, perhaps to trap these new and unfamiliar creatures so the spider can study them.