By the end of the sixth floor, Kir was reaching the end of his physical stamina. Mana-wise, he was great, but his body just wasn’t going to keep up with all the kiloters-long marching through all sorts of bios and weather patterns and fights.
They’d just passed through the icy bio after an encounter with with white, furry creatures that looked like roided-out bears with gorilla arms only to arrive at a strange, lush zone that was made of ghostly white, petrified trees rising high into the heavens. From the higher ones poured waterfalls, and a gentle misting rain seed to fall everywhere.
Lilypad-like plants, each with their own little ecosystem, comprised the majority of their walking space, so connected by bridges of wood that had been nailed into their green flesh. As they walked, Kir noticed that the light was fading.
So these places do have a day and night cycle, he thought to himself. Then he noticed a large split in the lilypad ahead of him.
Below, the fall descended so far that it was pitch black without anything but trunks and stalks visible.
"What happens when you fall?" Kir asked.
Ata replied, "Sa thing as what happens if anyone crosses the edge of a room’s zone. If you’re lucky, you land sowhere random in this dungeon. If you’re unlucky, you co back inside out or in pieces or wind up sowhere completely different. And if you’re really unlucky, you fall into a grote room and wind up being food."
"Grote?" Kir asked.
"It’s short for ’grotesque,’" Ata explained. "Deeper dungeons aren’t as pretty as the stuff we’re getting up here... and the monsters, well..." She shuddered. "Once in a while soone brings up a grotesque corpse. I saw one last year and... let’s just say it would turn anyone’s stomach inside out. They say there are even ones that can speak, or scream, and lure adventurers in before devouring them."
"And here I thought this place was starting to make sense," Kir said. "I’m guessing there are more ways to be unlucky than lucky?"
"Yep!" Ata patted him on the back, making him jitter back from the edge he was looking over. "Don’t worry that smart little Academy brain of yours, new guy. The dungeons are sothing wondrously beyond all reason and comprehension. Learn to roll with it."
Seven lilypads later, Lugh raised his fist for a halt.
"We’ll make camp here. Tid, Malore, Vessica, Draugen, Ata: Clear the lilypad. Ata and Tid, see if you can shoot sothing edible for once."
"Yes squad leader," most of the called-out cadets replied, before dropping their packs and arming up. Kir organized their things into one pile and offered so of the other cadets to help with the setup, the ones that talked to him refused.
Kir hadn’t brought a pack, anticipating it would be a short trip. Fortunately, it seed he was quite capable of sustaining himself by breathing... Stars, this place was invigorating. If most demons could live off of mana, why didn’t more of them just go into dungeons?
Walking away from the camp, he decided to ask a demon. Reaching to the back of his neck, he picked up Stella.
"Hey Stella, if people like us eat mana, why-"
Stella lay slack against his palm, her breathing long and deep. She was asleep.
Kir sighed and put her on the back of his neck. She deserved a rest, given the difficulties of the traversal so far.
After a while, without any orders not to, Kir decided to walk toward the center of the lilypad to see what the team was up to.
He was just in ti to see two of the cadets spear a bus-sized lizard like so sort of nightmare cross between an iguana and a komodo dragon.
The arrows in its eyes suggested they had the advantage in that situation.
They looked exhausted but happy, and Ata whooped for joy. "Fuck yeah! Basilisk steaks tonight!"
Kir approached. They were more than happy to accept his help with dressing the corpse. Kir used Kangetsu to slice through its tough, scaly hide, and Ata proved quite capable at harvesting the at and edible organs. It made him re-evaluate the fact he’d thought of her as a herbivore, but then again, he’d never had lunch with the Arcane Knight cadets.
"Hey big boy," Ata called out to Kir, holding up what was quite obviously the now-severed penis of the lizard. "Think you’re bigger than this?" she teased.
"No," Kir replied simply.
"Bet you won’t eat it," she stuck out her tongue.
"Cook it properly and I might," Kir shot back, letting his tongue out back. His was longer than hers by a hand.
"Oh so you do like sausage," Ata smirked. "Rumor has it you and Rainier are close friends for being roommates. Care to share how close? You two a thing-a." She clicked her tongue into the extra syllable.
Kir smirked. "I’m going to go wash my hands. Make sure that’s clean before you cook it."
She flipped him off, a gesture she’d learned from him and liked. Kir flipped her two back, walking backward and around the corpse to get to the lilypad lake. "That’s not a no!" she called out just before he disappeared past the rise.
To Kir’s surprise, he found Lugh there, sitting cross-legged as he filled the group’s waterskins. At the sound of his approach, Lugh’s hand went to his sword, but he relaxed a little when he saw it was Kir. "What do you want?" he asked, returning to his task.
Kir sighed, "I thought I’d curse the water by putting my blood in it since you seed thirsty for it before."
"Do what you want. You’ve already won." Lugh spoke flatly as he plugged his current waterskin and moved to fill a new one.
Kir was tired of this shit.
"Yeah, and I didn’t have them boot you out on your ass for it. All I wanted was the bare minimum of not having to deal with a bully and a prick," Kir crossed his arms. "So how about you get off your high horse and tell what your fucking deal is so we can work together here. I already know you know so things about . Fuck, I know you even paid for it."
Months ago, during their shared caravan ride to Norneau, Lugh had paid an actress to inform on Kir.
"Fucking bitch..." he muttered, clearly guessing the source of Kir’s accusation. "I have nothing to say to you."
"Really? That’s how you want to play this? Because right now is the last chance I’m giving your privileged ass to co clean with ."
"Privileged... Privileged?!" Lugh shot up, dropping the waterskin. "How am I privileged, when you grew up with everything I ever wanted?" The veins on his neck popped out, his eyes were filled with rage. "You, the fucking demon who got to be raised by heroes! You, who grew up in a house filled with magic, while I grew up with a burnt-out drunk whose entertainnt was burning with what little magic he could conjure! And only when he died"
So it was jealousy, Kir realized. Lugh had seed downright pathological all those years ago when he’d stabbed Kir. And again when he’d been forced to apologize. Sothing in Kir’s mories clicked, but he set aside his argunt as Lugh continued to rant.
"I knew you were evil from the first ti my sister ca ho crying. Saying it was her fault sothing bad happened in that house!"
"I never t your sister before coming to the Academy!" Kir interrupted.
"LIAR! You tried making so... so dish with her. And when it went wrong you hurt her!" he pointed at Kir accusingly.
mory flooded back to Kir. A stormy night. His failed attempt at bringing pizza into the world... The naless girl who was there for a potion... A potion he now realized was likely for Lugh.
"That’s not how it happened!" Kir said. The mory was so hazy, but he rembered what had made her cry. "I was trying to tell her about lightning!"
"I don’t care what it was! I know it was you!" Lugh spat.
"So when you stabbed , that was what? Attempted murder for revenge?"
"It wasn’t supposed to happen like that!" Lugh shouted. His fist was clenched, but he forced himself to turn away, running his hands through his hair. "But you had to piss off-"
"Those are the words of soone trying to paint his evil on his victim," Kir snarled.
Kir didn’t know what to expect, but when Lugh dropped his hands to his side, the human was close to tears. "Ann said the sa thing to ... More or less..."
Suddenly it clicked, why Lugh had been so silent over the last month. He was going through a crisis of character. As much as he hated Kir, he loved his sister more. Kir had beaten him that day in the training yard... but it was Ann who had defeated him.
When Lugh remained silent, Kir finally said what he’d realized. "Don’t beco your father."
Lugh’s eyes flared back to life, "I will never be like him!" he snarled.
"Then prove it. Stop kicking down at people like when there are real assholes out there," Kir replied.
Lugh’s face was still snarling. He turned away, looking like he wanted to punch sothing or scream or both. "Why do you two have to sound so alike..."
He had no idea what Lugh’s father was like, so Kir assud he ant Ann. "Just don’t be a dick. It’s a simple rule."
"I’m trying!" Lugh said, picking up so piece of petrified detritus and throwing it into the lake. "But I still... hate you."
Kir shrugged. He didn’t expect that to change. "And I don’t give a shit about you. Space in my head doesn’t co rent-free for assholes."
To Kir’s surprise, Lugh made a sound sowhere between a cough and a strangled laugh. "Where the fuck do you co up with this stuff?" Lugh asked.
"I’m a devious demon who can bend words to his whim," Kir snarked back.
"You should fuck off and be a bard then," Lugh waved a dismissive hand.
"Only when people stop assuming I’m a criminal first," Kir replied.
"Not that anything I tried worked..." Lugh muttered.
"I heard that," Kir said. "What do you an?"
Lugh sighed. "When I got to the city, I tried warning them about you. How you claid to be half-angel. The guards... then the Knight Commander. Nobody cared... or at least, I thought the Knight Commander did. But a month ago after I... lost... He lost all interest in . If I can’t make it as an arcane knight..."
Kir couldn’t believe he was about to give comfort to an enemy, but at the end of the day, Lugh was an abused, wrongheaded young adult.
"Look... you’ve had bad shit happen to you. But today, even when you’ve talked to , you’ve been a decent leader," Kir said in a softer tone. "That won’t solve the fact that you’re a dick, but it’s a start. If you can treat people as equals on the battlefield, maybe you can do it everywhere."
"Hmph. You didn’t seem to think so at the start," Lugh noted.
"Yeah, well, I’ll pin the bla on Faymar for that one," Kir said. "Putting soone with a sword an no shield at the front-"
"Did I just hear my na?" Professor Faymar said as he approached them from behind.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear... Kir sighed internally.
Lugh had seed like he was about to agree when he instead moved to a more alert position. "Yes, Professor. We were discussing your wisdom."
Whatever he thought of that, Faymar didn’t say. "I understand you are setting up camp. Please be aware that I also will be resting for a spell."
"I’ll set up a watch," Lugh replied.
"You should already have one. Bit of free advice. Put that one on midnight duty. A demonkin sees better in darkness," he pointed at Kir without looking.
"I appreciate the advice, senior mage," Lugh saluted.
"As you were," the elf replied, before continuing in an unhurried walk to the other side of the lake.
The conversation felt a bit off after that, so Lugh and Kir simply nodded to each other before Kir walked away.
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