Ways of the Odd (IV)
There was an awkward silence persisting between the two groups that stood rooted in place as Cain vanished. One could almost touch it, yet nobody quite dared. In the end, Emma sighed and took a deep breath, realizing it was back to her once again with him gone. She walked up to Krar's group and stopped in front of them, observing each mber individually.
"We'll go back to the city together," she said. "If that's okay with you."
"Of course," Krar quickly nodded. "I... I first want to apologize."
"For what?"
"For hitting on you. If I had known--"
"You shot your shot," Emma interrupted him, shrugging. "Nothing wrong with that. Co on; I'm sure this place will soon be sward. I don't wanna be here when that happens."
Everyone could agree on that, at the very least, quickly moving from the top, sticking to the narrow and winding alleyways and the cover of the dying night. They moved in much smaller groups, each roughly a hundred feet behind, following the path Diya had mapped out for everyone. It took them roughly an hour to finally exit Albadesh City and erge back into the molten lake, moving up toward the surface.
By the ti they erged, it ought to have been dawn, but because of the thick layers of ashen clouds, the world around them appeared still to be in the night.
"Can... can I ask you sothing?" Krar walked up to Emma with a pensive look on his face as the two began walking up front with the rest following behind, separated into two distinct groups.
"Sure," Emma said.
"Cain... how strong is he?" Krar asked.
"..." Emma turned silent for a mont as she glanced sideways, eting the man's eyes. She didn't find any ill will in them, just pure curiosity and even a bit of nervousness. "I don't know." she replied after a while.
"H-huh?"
"With him, you'll learn," she added. "It's not about his strength. But the ability to control everything that happens. Besides, you've caught the sa glimpses we did. You should have a general idea."
"... that's the thing," Krar sighed. "I am absolutely confident in our Elentalist. I think he's one of the best, if not the best. Yet... he can barely conjure up 4 Elents at once, and that's if he gets lucky. Cain... Ryu said Cain conjured up... seven. And not just once. But ti and again, in addition to conjuring up several of six-elents-skills at the sa ti. There's nothing... nothing to compare that to."
"You shouldn't get too caught up in your illusion of him," Emma chuckled lightly. "He's a lazy bum, a jackass, and a first-ballot hall of fa asshole. He'll put up a front, but if you let that front srize you, you'll beco like our healer."
"What about her?" Krar asked curiously.
"She takes every word he utters as though it was gospel," Emma sighed. "And that... well, if I'm being honest, there's likely nothing more dangerous in the entire world than that. This unholy place included."
"Spoken like a true wife." Krar spoke without aning to, imdiately regretting his words. "I--"
"Ha ha ha, I guess so, yeah," Emma laughed, contrary to his expectations. "Yeah, there's gotta be soone to keep him grounded. Tell about your group. How'd you guys got up there?"
"Ah, it's hardly a fancy story," Krar chuckled as he pulled out a candy-bar from his inventory, unwrapping it speedily and with great expertise. "We arrived on the second floor about a month ago. Like most, we remained around that big-ass city, hoping we'd be let in or sothing. No such luck. Then, we hear a rumor that 'the Greedy Seven' had announced that the way into the city was to slay a strong creature in one of the surrounding regions and bring its head."
"Oh."
"And we headed this way. We realized sothing was off a few days in," Krar chuckled. "There was nobody else here. I an, sure, rivers and pools of lava were strange and dangerous, but for there to be nobody here? Eh. Anyway, we reached the edge of the lake, and our Prominent -- uh, one of the classes from the Brazilian Tower -- 'read', so to say, that there was a city at the bottom. By the ti we arrived, we saw that soulstorm rifting above the city so we headed over to check it out -- which is when we t up with you guys."
"What group do you belong to?" Emma asked suddenly.
"... we belonged to Lander's," Krar replied with a bitter smile.
"Who's that?" Emma asked.
"A daddy's son," Krar shrugged. "And the one that tried going after Rick Garcia a few tis."
"Oh? So, that was you guys?"
"Us? No, no, trust -- we had no contact whatsoever," Krar quickly said. "We spent most of the ti since the Towers fell inside them, only ever coming out to recoup and resupply. We only ever even beca a part of his group because... we didn't know what was going on. We thought we'd need protection, money, hos."
"And now you don't?"
"No," Krar shook his head. "Our strength is our protection. And the Tower... is our ho."
"Wow, that's kinda depressing."
"H-huh?"
"Do you know," Emma said. "That we've spent as much ti inside the Tower as we did resting outside of it since it fell?"
"What?!"
"Hm," she nodded. "This place... changes you, slowly. You realize you're craving to fight, to be here, rather than out there. It's dangerous. So, we always take at least a month or two break on the outside."
"... what do you do? Train?" Krar asked, still in disbelief.
"Nope, just fuck around," Emma shrugged. "This last break, I went to the spa at least thrice a week. I don't think Cain left the apartnt more than twice. And others are either playing gas, drinking, watching movies, or taking naps."
"..."
"I know it's hard to take in, especially considering you probably know who we are," she chuckled. "But... it works. Don't let this place consu you. Or your friends. There's more to life than just fighting all the ti."
"..." Krar fell silent for a mont, looking at her. Even through the mask, he could see she was being honest. Even still... it made no sense. They were all so strong... they were the group that cleared the first floor, the group that likely tops every other in the Tower. Yet... to hear that they spent over three months of the six that passed on the outside... was insane. It was a punch akin to a lightning bolt.
"Don't go there," she suddenly jolted him out of his thoughts, smiling at him gently. "You'll understand it when Cain cos back. We have this uniquely bad luck... that gets us to places and into fights that we have no business being in or fighting. How do you think we ended up on top of that place?"
"... how?" Krar asked.
"We were doing missions in the city, randomly, and saved so enslaved groups," Emma said. "And, among them was a particularly perky girl that we all took a liking to, so we decided to let her follow us. Because of her, we got a quest the mont we entered the Lake that then led us to the city. In the city, we randomly ran into Taima -- that young-looking boy -- when Cain went to join the army. He then told us of the King's plans and practically forced us to go fight him. Do you think we planned out any of that?"
"..."
"The sa thing happened when we cleared the first floor," Emma added, interspersing so white lies to make it a bit easier. "We were just supposed to be fighting a normal dungeon boss. Then, Cain gets dragged off as the highest-level of us to fight alone, and the rest of us get tossed at the floor boss. With such bad luck, we have to rest. Otherwise, we'd likely set this whole place on fire because of frustrations."
"... hah," Krar chuckled bitterly, taking a bite of the bar. "Bad luck... you wanna talk about bad luck? On the first floor, we accidentally entered so Ancient Ruins. Ryu literally fell down a hole and we fell one after another trying to help him. We were stuck there, in the labyrinth of the sa hallways and chambers for at least two months. On the brink of collapse... we reached the end. We got a quest. 'Purify the Ancients'. Suddenly, the whole hall shook, and these eight giants stood up from the floor. Eighty feet tall, each. Our weapons barely did a squat. A day... two... three... fight, fight, fight... six of us ended up dying. Four quit the group. Our rewards? Just a stupid title or sothing. No items, no levels, no new skills... buuut, we beca 'Heroes'. I guess we took a wrong lesson from that," Krar added, sighing and lowering his head. "We believed that in order for that to never happen again... we had to fight, all the ti. Get better items. Gain more levels. Learn our classes better. Get more useful skills."
"..."
"Your group lose soone?" he asked.
"... yes." Emma replied. "A young boy. Very early on."
"Hurts, don't it?"
"Like hell."
"I... I don't want to lose anyone in my group," Krar added. "It's my job to keep them safe."
"... ah, so that's why you joined us," Emma suddenly realized, chuckling. "Not the whole fanatical obsession with Cain."
"Ha ha, partly both, if I'm being honest," Krar said. "When I saw him fighting... I realized... he's just like ."
"Huh?"
"Sobody who would take that hell on all by himself isn't doing it for glory or levels or skills, I'm afraid," he added. "And I was even more convinced when I t him." he glanced at her for a mont, a strange look in his eyes, but said nothing. "You're right. While his strength inspires... sothing else about him draws. I hope you'll be inviting us to your parties when it's ti to leave this place, though."
"Of course," Emma chuckled. "The more the rrier. Your group... is lucky to have you."
"No," Krar shook his head, glancing back stealthily. "I'm lucky to have them."
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