The dawn shined above the horizon, casting a warm golden light upon the two boys walking through the roses. The grey petals stretched endlessly in all directions, their dull color a stark contrast to the pale blue morning sky. Dew glistened on each petal, creating a srizing sparkle across the field as the first rays of sunlight touched them.
Aziel yawned expansively, stretching his arms above his head. His blue hair caught the light, montarily glimring. His face brightened with a smile that seed to chase away the lingering shadows of night.
"Finally..." he said, his voice carrying relief and anticipation. "I’m starving, now that it’s day let’s take a break and eat."
The night had been long, but now, with daylight spreading across the landscape, they could afford a mont’s respite. The rose field was less threatening in daylight, though no less mysterious.
Arthur sighed and stopped walking. His dark hair hung slightly over his eyes, which showed the fatigue of their journey. His shoulders slumped almost imperceptibly as he considered the suggestion.
"Okay," he conceded, "I guess I’m a bit hungry too."
Aziel, smiling deeply, sat down on the roses with a casual plop. He seed utterly unbothered by the bed of thorns and petals beneath him, settling into the deadly cushion as if it were the most natural thing in the world. His carefree attitude stood in stark contrast to the vigilance Arthur had maintained throughout the trek.
Arthur sat down as well, his movents more asured, more careful. He imdiately felt the temptation of the roses. It was an insidious sensation, yet it didn’t frighten him as it once had. For so reason, Aziel seed utterly unbothered by them at all tis, seemingly immune to their enchantnt in a way Arthur couldn’t understand.
And it didn’t even matter if Arthur succumbed to their temptations, as they seed to have no real effect. This realization had gradually transford his fear into curiosity. So as Arthur sat down, he actually let himself relax, allowing the tension to flow from his tired muscles.
He pulled so at from his realm storage and handed both pieces to Aziel.
Aziel took the offerings greedily, his eyes widening with anticipation. Drool pooled at the corners of his mouth as he regarded the raw at with undisguised hunger. His stomach growled audibly, emphasizing his ravenous state.
He spent a couple of seconds covering the at with his lightning, the crackling energy dancing between his fingers and over the surface of their breakfast. Blue-white sparks illuminated his face from below, casting strange shadows across his features. The at sizzled and popped under the electrical assault, quickly blackening on the outside.
While he wasn’t that controlled in his approach, and the at almost always ended up extrely burnt, it was still better than raw. The charred exterior gave way to a barely-cooked interior—not ideal, but sufficient to ward off hunger for a few more hours of walking.
Arthur felt no reason to complain as he struggled to bite past the tough texture of the at. The outer layer crumbled like charcoal between his teeth, while the inner portions remained chewy and resistant. It wasn’t a feast by any standard, but it would keep them going.
While eating, Aziel spoke, still attempting to chew on the food in his mouth. Crumbs escaped his lips as he gestured with one hand, the other still clutching his half-eaten breakfast.
"We shouldn’t be too far from escaping this rose field... Probably."
His uncertainty hung in the air between them, a reminder of their precarious situation.
Arthur rolled his eyes, swallowing a particularly difficult bite before responding.
"Yeah, hopefully," he said with a hint of skepticism. Then, his expression turned more serious. "But what do we expect once we do?"
The question had been plaguing him for days—what waited beyond the roses? How much more perilous would this realm beco? The unknown lood large in his thoughts.
Aziel let his smile disappear as he looked up and to the left, his brow furrowing slightly in an expression of deep thought. The absence of his perpetual grin made him look suddenly older, more serious.
"Well, Aragon, from what we have explored, seems to have been a dieval-aged civilization," he began, his voice taking on a lecturing tone. "We have actually explored quite a lot of it surprisingly, which is why being sowhere unexplored is truly piss-poor luck."
He paused to take another bite, chewing thoughtfully before continuing.
"But once we get out, it hopefully won’t be too long till we find sowhere I rember from all of the studying my dad made do of this realm’s map. The monsters will most likely all be tainted and twisted once we leave, so we should be able to handle ourselves okay."
Arthur’s mood dropped slightly as he was reminded of the impossibility of their scenario. Lost in an unexplored region, surrounded by dangers they barely understood—the weight of their situation pressed down on him anew.
Then he noticed Aziel’s grin reappear, spreading across his face like the dawn had spread across the sky earlier. There was sothing infectious about his optimism, even in dire circumstances.
"There is one plus side," Aziel offered, his eyes twinkling with mischief and hope.
Arthur raised an eyebrow, curiosity piqued despite his pessimism.
"Oh yeah? Elaborate."
Aziel’s grin turned to a full smile, revealing teeth stained slightly from the charred at.
"Well, there’s gonna be a lot of fighting between now and when we get to the core, so we’ll be able to fill our cores much faster than most chosen... hell, it might be filled by the ti we get back."
Arthur sighed, considering this perspective. He had noticed himself slowly but surely getting stronger with each kill. It felt like his core beat like a heart after every victory, and Arthur felt the strength entering him with each pulse—a strange but not unpleasant sensation.
"Yeah, I guess that’s true," he admitted reluctantly. "But I doubt we’ll fill our cores. Every kill feels like filling a pool with rain."
The progress was there, but so incrental as to seem almost futile. How many monsters would they need to defeat before they reached their full potential?
Aziel leaned forward, his eyes bright with enthusiasm and determination.
"Then we’ll just have to kill a lot of monsters, huh?"
The simplicity of his solution was both frustrating and oddly comforting. Aziel seems to always reduce complex problems to straightforward solutions.
Arthur shook his head and pald his face. ’This guy is ridiculous,’ he thought.
But as Arthur took his hand from his face, he soon felt sothing else erge in his brain. A question—no, a request—that had been forming since they walked away from their battle with the Nightreavers. He had seen Aziel move with deadly grace, his lightning cutting through the darkness defeating two Nightreavers with ease while Arthur had barely managed to defeat one.
He swallowed his pride and took a breath before looking at Aziel with determination in his eyes. The morning light illuminated his face, highlighting his newfound resolve.
"Aziel," he said, his voice carrying unusual weight.
Now it was Aziel’s turn to raise an eyebrow, curiosity replacing his usual carefree expression.
"Yeah?"
Arthur took a second to gather his thoughts, steeling himself against the vulnerability of what he was about to ask.
"Train ."
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