Arawn Dragon
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Chapter 123 “The Tower.” Part 2
🕑 Added 2024-02-28 23:04:01 +0000 UTCAuthor's note: a very early update... for a change.
Enjoy!
There was no breeze.
The heat and humidity inside the cave seemed to rise in level with each passing minute.
Beads of sweat bathed the foreheads of each of the eight remaining heroes as the thin fabric of their shirts clung to their backs.
The small mushrooms scattered along the edges of the walls next to the tiny, glowing stones barely illuminated enough for the small group of young men to see where they were going.
“Where is this supposed to lead us? We’ve been walking for over ten minutes and there’s no sign of these people, much less any monsters!” Gideon complained.
“Is it safe to try to meet them?” Gabriel argued. “I mean the four court mages, the two knights of Bhallys and the three from the Duchy of Brincy. None of us is strong enough to defeat him, and even if Kalysto faces them, surely she won’t be able to defeat them all at the same time.”
“That’s not the problem," they all looked at her carefully, “have you noticed that there aren’t even traces of monsters the whole time we’ve been advancing?” The air seemed to get heavier and heavier with each step they took and shadows seemed to reign in the two meters wide, long corridor of earth and stone. What had started out as a wide cave that had gradually begun to shrink. Despite her calm appearance, the whole experience was beginning to make her nervous and seemed a bit claustrophobic.
I would definitely prefer to run free in the woods. She thought, and immediately erased that thought and focused on a soft flash of light she could see to her right inside a sudden curvature.
“What do you think it means?” Edward asked.
“Either there are no monsters in this part of the tower... or we have taken a different path than the one they took, though I didn’t see any other option,” Rita ventured to the silence of Kalysto, who was more focused on what was in front of her than on the conversation.
“But this is the only way we have found!” Gideon protested, “How is it possible that they found a different one?”
“None of us know how the tower works. Maybe it’s like a video game and creates a different route for each group of players, or maybe there are no monsters at this point. Or worse, someone or something out there took the remains of the monsters the others killed.” A shiver ran through the bodies of the twins, Edward and Emanuel as fear shone in their eyes after hearing her words. “Be aware, there’s a detour on the way!” Kalysto leaned the palm of her hand against one of the walls as she continued, but as they advanced towards the bend, the soft blue light grew stronger and stronger.
A small domed clearing opened up before them and directly in front of them, a huge blue portal that took up almost half the width of the entire back wall shone in all its splendor.
“Are we supposed to go through that thing?” Edward questioned, his voice breaking at the end of the sentence.
“Do you think we have any other choice?” Kalysto questioned him a bit harshly before turning and facing the small group of survivors. “Listen to me, all of you! I’m not going to force you to come with me! You can choose to stay here where perhaps you could be safe from the monsters and risk being discovered by the people of this kingdom and return to them. Or come with me, conquer this tower, find a way out and escape from them. What you do now or after we escape is your decision, but you must make it now. I will not wait around, nor will I tolerate being questioned every three seconds by each of you. If you are going to come with me, it will be on my command and my terms. If you are going to complain, then stay here and see how you survive on your own.”
“What? Are you really going to abandon us?” Gideon was surprised.
“Don’t you care what happens to us?” Edward and Emanuel protested at the same time.
“I don’t know what strange fantasy is running through your head, Gideon, but I have no obligation to any of you," Kalysto defended herself, giving Edward a look so he knew she meant him too. “We are all adults here, and therefore everyone is responsible for themselves, and I’m not your mother, so you can expect me to solve all your problems for you! Learn to think for yourself!” Then she turned around and stood in front of the portal, whose energy danced like a whirlpool of water, but vertically. “Rita, Koden, I’ll be waiting for you on the other side," and without waiting for their response, she went through the huge portal.
“Yes!" They both answered and a tense silence spread through the cave.
“Kalysto can be a little strange sometimes, but she’s right," Koden said to Edward, looking him in the eye, “and you know it,” he added, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Looking uncomfortable explaining himself to someone he considered his best friend. “I’ve already made my choice.” But like Kalysto, he too had noticed the change in his friend’s attitude, and unlike Edward, he wasn’t willing to risk his life to play the hero. He just wanted to go home and be with his family. Every night since they had arrived in this strange world, he prayed to the God his mother had tried so hard to make him believe in while he was growing up, to grant him the wish that his mother and his two annoying older sisters would be safe. “And you know very well that we have a better chance of surviving with her. We’d both be dead if it weren’t for her help..... I hope you make the right decision... I have family back home waiting for me that I want to see again, and I know Kalysto can help me with that.” then he turned around, and just as she had done, he walked through the portal.
“Oscar?” Rita murmured, approaching the portal and holding out her hand to the tall, silent brunet. “You know she has no bad intentions.”
“..." He looked at her silently for a few seconds before answering, “I know what you two did inside that wall of ice.” Rita’s body tensed at the accusation. But she recovered quickly and lifted her chin before answering.
“You were there when we heard them gloating about how easy it had been to teach my father a lesson! You know they killed him because the king ordered to get rid of anyone who tried to rebel!” She reproached him, “They only killed him to make sure the rest of us wouldn’t try to follow his example and oppose them!”
“...I know,” he replied, his voice soft and calm, contrasting with her screams. “But that doesn’t give you any right to kill them.”
Rita took a step back, visibly affected by the words of the man she had fallen in love with over the past few weeks and with whom she believed they were finally coming to an understanding. Her hopes of building a beautiful relationship despite all the hell she had been going through, collapsed before her eyes as she saw the disappointment, sadness and judgment in his gaze.
And with the pain of losing something that was just beginning to blossom, came anger.
“I honestly doubt very much that you wouldn’t have done the same thing if you had been in my place!” Her voice sounded raw and full of pain. “But if you’re going to use it as an excuse to break up with me, then do whatever you want! “ And without waiting for his answer, she turned around and entered the doorway with her eyes misty with tears and her heart broken.
“Rita!” Oscar shouted, stepping forward with his fists clenched, but it was too late. She was already gone.
The twenty-four-year-old man growled, and tousled his dark hair that until a month ago he had always kept in a military cut, but now had begun to grow out, to his constant annoyance. He closed his eyes and looked down at the ground in defeat as the rest of them watched the scene in silence.
“Come on dude, it’s not that big of a deal! There are more pretty girls in the world. You can always find another one," Gideon tried to cheer him up, but before he could touch his shoulder to comfort him, Oscar slapped his hand and walked away from him. The cold green eyes settled on the cheerful blond. The anger and darkness Gideon saw there struck fear into him.
“Stay away from her if you know what’s good for you!” hissed the brunet before stepping through the portal.
“What the hell is wrong with that psycho?” Gideon complained.
“Just stay away from his girlfriend," reproached his twin brother, being well aware of the continuous attempts Gideon had made to seduce her. As well as of the blonde’s rejections and that it had been his brother who had complained in front of some palace maids, alleging that Kalysto Koden and Rita must have been having orgies every night in Kalysto’s room. “And Gideon, I don’t think we can survive for now without them, either. I think it would be best for all of us to follow them.”
While the rest debated about the best course to follow, Rita hit her prey with a club that Kalysto had given her.
“Fucking shitty slimes. Can’t they just stop breeding worse than rabbits?” grunted the blonde.
The last thing Oscar expected to find on the other side of the portal was a relaxed Kalysto picking up crystals from the ground as if she were harvesting carrots, while Koden and Rita were facing a group of twenty slimes.
“Just burn them all and that’s it," Kalysto replied with a shrug. “That will help improve your bad mood," the blonde’s face immediately brightened at the idea.
“Koden, get out of the way! Fire creation!” Rita shouted, launching a large flare of fire from each hand, incinerating as many slimes as she could until the notification window announcing that she was running low on mana opened before her.
“Hey, I want to level up too!” The tank complained after killing another slime with its thick sword.
“The next group is all yours," Kalysto assured him as she put away a couple of crystals she had just collected from the ground. “Now, are any of you hurt?” She asked as she took out a plastic bottle filled with low-quality holy water.
Just a couple of scratches," Koden assured her as he watched the ice mage drink the water. But the truth is, if I’m really thirsty, if you wish to share, I’m not opposed.
“Bruised, mostly, and I can’t lift my right arm much,” this worried Oscar, but before he could approach the blonde to help her, Kalysto was already at her side.
“Drink this and ignore any discomfort you feel! Mana detection!” She whispered, concentrating on looking for internal injuries. “No bones have been broken, but that will help you heal the rest. Leave some to Koden.”
“Another secret?” asked the allude, approaching them as he watched Oscar carefully. “I ask because we are no longer alone,” the blonde immediately turned to look at the newcomer.
“What are you giving her? Is Rita going to be all right?” He wanted to inspect the bottle, but Kalysto took it long before he could and handed it to Koden, who drank it in two gulps before handing it back to the empty bottle, which Kalysto was quick to keep in her inventory.
“Unless you are willing to sign a contract where you swear to keep all my secrets, I will not answer you," she replied, challenging him with her eyes.
“Is this another kind of magic?” Koden muttered in surprise as he watched the small cuts on her arms begin to close.
“Eh... something like that.”
“It’s much more effective than red potions!” He assured her enthusiastically.
“And harder to get," Kalysto assured him. “Don’t tell the others.”
“Rita?” Oscar muttered, trying to approach her, but the blonde ignored him and approached her friends.
“Shall we go?” asked the blonde.
“As soon as your skill finishes cooling down, we’ll leave. There’s another monster a little stronger than these slimes a couple of meters from here. I guess he’ll be the boss of this floor. If the others haven’t arrived by the time you’re ready, we’ll leave without them.”
