System felt a little reluctant to let Aura contact the evil god. He was also a little worried that doing so would have a negative effect on Aura's mental state.

  However, when System considered the fact that Aura's usual mental state was already extremely abnormal, and that he used to be the Lord of Gciers before he was reduced to a remnant soul possessing a butterfly, System felt that Aura might be able to resist the evil god's temptation.

  After thinking the situation through, System looked over at Aura who was still messing around with the ring. "Okay, stop pretending. I know you can't figure out a way to get us back."

  "You tentacled trash, I can't believe you don't trust me! If I said that I can send you back, I'll definitely do it!"

  After Aura heard System's mental message, he became enraged and started fiddling with the ring grasped in his legs with renewed vigor.

  However, the emotions that System could sense from Aura had undoubtedly exposed him. It was clear that the butterfly was feeling more panicked than before, and his legs that were grasping the ring had even started to tremble noticeably.

  Aura obviously already knew that he had no hope of using the ring to get the three of them out of their current predicament.

  When System saw how Aura kept nervously messing around the ring, he thought that the butterfly's desire to leave this pce seemed to be even stronger than his own.

  System thought that Aura's current state was probably because he'd been trapped in his chrysalis for so long, which had left a shadow on his heart. He was now very afraid of being trapped somewhere, and was suffering from some sort of mental disorder simir to custrophobia.

  But Aura, who hated being trapped, seemed very contradictory in his actions.

  When he was trapped, he would try every means to escape, but after being freed, he would seclude himself in his small underground chamber. No matter how much you tempted him, he wouldn't easily take even a single step outside.

  ...

  System didn't know that Aura was mostly anxious because he was trapped here with System and Shava. It wasn't that Aura wanted to save them because their retionships were especially close or anything like that. He just refused to allow his friends to be dragged down because of his own actions.

  As a dragon, Aura had been born with a proud soul. Although his pride was based more on delusion than power now that he'd become a tiny butterfly, that didn't change the fact that he still maintained that innate sense of pride. He wouldn't allow others to pity him or feel disappointed with something he did.

  Due to this pride, after Aura had found out that the three of them had been trapped in this pce due to his own actions, the butterfly had changed his zy behavior and started working hard to get them all out of the demipne.

  Aura, who was focused on trying to figure out how to use the ring, didn't know that there was no need for him to try so hard. No matter what he did, System would never be disappointed with him.

  System never held any hope for this unreliable and zy butterfly in the first pce, so there was naturally no way for him to become disappointed. His expectations couldn't go down any further when they were already at the bottom.

  As for Shava, the soldier ant knight was simply guarding quietly by System's side. As long as her king was there, she would feel at ease even if they were facing mountains of swords and seas of fire.

  Unlike Aura and System, Shava had never even thought about leaving the pace. She'd only occasionally looked over at Aura's ring and its bck gem with an envious expression.

  She also wanted that beautiful silver ring with its shiny bck gem.

  Fortunately, Aura, who was concentrating on tinkering with the ring, didn't know what the other two were thinking. If he did, it would undoubtedly send a fatal blow to the butterfly's fragile mind.

  The overly excitable butterfly might even end up suffering another mental breakdown.

  ...

  System considered his options for a while before finally deciding to talk to Aura about communicating with the evil god.

  "Don't worry about the ring. I know another way to get out of here. Although it's a little dangerous, it's very likely that we'll be able to leave."

  "What method?" Aura quickly asked.

  After receiving System's mental messages, Aura cooperated more readily than System had expected. He seemed to be very interested in what System had to say.

  System didn't hide anything. He told Aura everything he knew about Rafael, the God of Pgues and Curses. Whether it was the mentally ill ratman who had been captured and imprisoned or the ratman wizard who had self-destructed, System described everything that he'd learned step by step.

  System also showed Aura a portrait of Rafael from the bck leather-bound book and pointed out that their current location might be a temple dedicated to the evil god.

  The conversation went much more smoothly than he'd expected. Although Aura could tell that communicating with the evil god would be dangerous, he still agreed without hesitation.

  Aura first mocked System's cowardice and incompetence, then boasted about his own courage and strength. According to him, after he communicated with the evil god, helping System remove the [Severance Curse] wouldn't be a problem.

  As long as System crawled in front of him and begged, Aura would be happy to help.

  Of course, if System was unwilling to make such a humble request, he could also use his tentacles to give Aura several massages in exchange for his help removing the curse.

  ...

  System could tell that Aura's mental messages were sincere. There was also nothing strange about the butterfly's emotions, which made System feel that everything seemed to be proceeding too easily.

  Getting Aura to communicate with Rafael had been so easy that System even felt a little strange about the situation.

  Originally, he'd decided to take advantage of Aura's character, and his pn was to take the lower position and use fttery on the arrogant butterfly. If he did that, Aura would still have to bite the bullet and deal with the evil god even if he was unwilling. However, all of System's pns had wound up being unnecessary in the end.

  System helped Aura find some dirt in the pace's prison cell, and the butterfly used the various tools lying around to quickly begin constructing a statue of Rafael, which was the first step in communicating with the evil god.

  Unfortunately, Aura seemed to have no talent in this area at all. After spending several hours crafting the dirt into statues, the final products ended up looking almost nothing like Rafael.

  Aura seemed to completely ck any sculpting talent. Even though he was now several statues in, the quality of the statues had shown no improvement at all. With skills like those, System guessed that it would be difficult for the butterfly to ever successfully form a connection to the evil god.

  System shook his head helplessly and decided to communicate with Rafael himself.

  Just as he was about to stop Aura from creating any more terrible statues, the butterfly suddenly put down the sculpting tools and began gathering the frost energy inside his body.

  Within seconds, a lifelike statue of Rafael made of ice appeared in front of Aura. The level of artistry dispyed by this statue was on a completely different level from the statues that had been formed from the prison cell's dirt.

  Almost immediately after the statue was completed, its eyes fshed with a red light, and a faint bck energy began to emerge. The energy soon stretched out and formed a connection to Aura's body.

  The bck energy quickly disappeared after the connection was formed. Once it vanished, Aura seemed to be frozen in pce, and he just stood there facing the statue in a daze. He seemed to have successfully started communicating with the evil god.

  Time passed little by little without Aura waking up.

  After many hours had gone by with no change, System decided to watch the video in his [Tools Menu] of Aura activating the ring and unintentionally teleporting them to the temple. He then tried to imitate the butterfly's actions and make the ring emit that fsh of gray light again.

  System's attempts weren't successful, but it turned out that he didn't need to do anything in the end.

  After a total of about ten hours had passed since Aura started communicating with Rafael, he finally woke up from his daze. He immediately looked over at System with a proud expression on his butterfly face. System could sense from Aura's emotions that the butterfly was extremely pleased with himself.

  Without Aura having to say anything more, System knew that the butterfly had likely learned how to get them back to the nest.

  System also noticed that even though Aura had been communicating with the evil god for a very long time, his mental state hadn't changed at all. As far as System could tell, the butterfly hadn't suffered any sort of mental trauma during his experience.