"Thanks for coming out." Sky of the Pantheon guild had a dreamy look in her eyes. She seemed a little out of it and dazed, but she smiled and nodded her head at Miranda. "We really appreciate it."
"We're getting paid, right?" Miranda asked bluntly.
Two Arcane Knights, also from the Pantheon guild, both shuffled and looked annoyed. One even glared at the Phoenix Flight member, but Miranda's look didn't change, nor did Sky's.
"Of course," Sky spoke in a sleepy voice and even had to stop herself from yawning after every word. "I've already sent the money in. It's the usual amount we pay for Cleanup Squad members."
Miranda finally gave a nod of her own. "Good. Then yes, we'll do the job you asked of us."
"Thank you."
Miranda had been serious when she said she was going to take the recruits out on a mission. After gathering Davi, Olivia, Sieg, and Ken up, she set out right away, taking the group into the woods.
Ragna's method of getting around involved throwing shit into the air and then hopping on it in order to fly to his destination. Pock's method involved opening portals and teleporting. Miranda lacked both qualities that those two had, and since she rarely went on missions anymore, she would only pick quests that were within walking distance that she could arrive at in one day's time.
This quest was no different. Pantheon was reasonably close to the Phoenix Flight guild in terms of distance. Pantheon resided in Narcissus City, which was close enough to Oleander that it would only take a five-hour drive to reach in a normal car.
A vast forest was placed between the two locations, and within this forest, close to Narcissus City, Miranda and her group came across three members of the Pantheon Guild.
Of course, a dungeon was also here. In a section of the forest, the trees all vanished, along with the grass. Smooth cobblestone rose up, jutting out of the ground, and a tower was now present. This one wasn't like the elven towers; it lacked the runes and was also nowhere near as big.
The structure didn't belong out here and had appeared when the dungeon did. The stone was ancient and covered in moss, and it looked similar to a watchtower placed in a castle. A pair of rusted metal doors stood open at the front, and beyond them were a pair of steps that led down into total darkness.
"We already beat the boss." Sky looked back at the dungeon. "It wasn't too bad. It was a minotaur, and the dungeon took on the form of a large maze, so it was kind of annoying to get around. It took us even longer to find the vault, and it was empty. That was odd since a dungeon like this should have had some rare loot or at least anything but for it to be totally empty... Talk about bad luck. Speaking of which, now that you're here, we'll be taking our leave."
Under normal circumstances, after a guild defeated a dungeon, they would loot it and then quickly get out since a dungeon would only stay stable for one hour. After that hour, the dungeon could close at any time and fade back to the realm it came from. Sometimes it could be open for days; other times, only seconds.
The issue with an open dungeon that hadn't faded but also lacked a boss was that the dungeon would seek a boss. Monsters nearby would sense it was available and attempt to enter it to become the new boss. People could also fall into the dungeon by mistake and get trapped when the doors sealed shut.
When a dungeon boss was defeated, the guild would have the cleanup squad come out and watch it to make sure no low-level monsters or people fell into the dungeon.
Due to recent events, that wasn't possible.
The Cleanup Squad were named as they were because they cleaned up and fixed things after the fights were over. They weren't strong enough to be considered proper Knights but could fight low-level monsters. Their specialty was in medicine and rebuilding. After three cities fell, they were running low on resources.
More dungeons had started to appear all over the kingdom, and so Pantheon was unable to get a Cleanup Squad to come out and watch the dungeon once they defeated the boss. Typically, if such an event happened, the Knights would stay themselves and make sure it was closed, but incidents were still occurring everywhere. Widespread panic was polluting all the major cities, so Pantheon couldn't afford to have a few Knights on standby and needed Sky and her team to leave for another mission as soon as they finished their current one.
Even with everything going on, people still hated Phoenix Flight and didn't want them involved in any matters, which is what gave Pantheon an idea. Since Phoenix Flight helped them out recently and Myth never held any bad blood against them, he decided to try to hire them as the 'Cleanup Crew' after Sky finished a mission so that she would be free.
That was the current quest Miranda was on now. She, as well as the four squires she took, Davi, Olivia, Ken, and Sieg, was going to make sure the dungeon closed and that there weren't any issues.
It was an easy enough quest.
"We'll be heading out," Sky stated. "I'm going to leave this in your hands. Good luck."
"Wishing us luck is pointless." Miranda sighed. "Now leave. I grow tired of looking at you."
The two other Pantheon members looked pissed, but Sky just giggled. The blue-haired woman then turned to gaze at Davi and the others. "I'm glad you four came out as well." She gave a bow of her head, showing respect, and her eyes looked directly at Davi. "You helped save a Squire of my guild. I know things are rough between Phoenix Flight and the other guilds, but please, if there is anything you need, feel free to ask Pantheon, and we'll do our best."
Davi watched as Sky and the other two Knights finally set out. Sky used a wind spell to lift herself and her two teammates up and flew into the air. He didn't understand why people kept thanking him for saving Sera. After all, he failed to save Snow, and even then, what was the use in thanking him? He just did what anyone else would have done.
"So what now?" Ken asked, looking at Miranda. "I was kind of hoping we'd get to go on an actual mission. This is just going to be a boring quest, isn't it?"
Miranda lazily took off a backpack she had slipped on. She changed out of her white suit before the mission began and now wore a white hoodie and white pants that were somehow stainless, despite her having been marching through the woods. When she opened her bag, it turned out to be a spatial storage device, and she started pulling out dozens of camping supplies.
"Who knows how long we're going to be out here for?" Miranda grunted. "This dungeon could take a day or two to close. Go ahead and set up camp. This quest is simple. We just sit and stop anything from entering the dungeon. You kids can manage that much, right?" She asked, and when she was done, she turned as if to leave.
"You aren't staying?" Sieg asked, a little shocked.
Miranda looked up to the sky. The sun was starting to set, and soon it would be night. She rubbed the side of her head and sighed. "No. I've got better things to do. I'll be back in the morning. Don't enter the dungeon. Sieg, you're in charge."
"Why me?"
"I have a feeling you're the most competent."
"Well, you're right." Sieg nodded.
Olivia quietly watched Miranda leave, the silver-haired woman vanishing into the woods. Already, the person in charge of them had ditched them. Miranda was very different from Ragna. She shook her head and tiredly looked toward the others. Davi was already setting up the tent.
"Is there only one tent…" Ken questioned.
"Is that an issue?" Sieg asked.
Ken gave a lazy shrug. "Not really. It's just not often I find myself sharing a space with two boys."
"Men." Sieg corrected.
"Boys." Ken insisted.
"Olivia is here also." Davi nodded, speaking in his usual blank tone.
That caused Ken and Sieg to turn to the snow-haired girl. The trip over here had taken several hours, walking through the woods, and yet Olivia had not spoken once. She was as quiet as Davi. She hadn't smiled either. It honestly creeped Ken out a little. This was nothing like the girl she had seen during the exams.
"Hey, White. Are you doing any better?" Sieg asked quietly, and he spoke in a soothing voice now, but the mask he wore made it impossible to tell his expression.
"I'm fine," Olivia spoke in a blunt tone.
"You obviously aren't fine." Ken folded her arms. "You've been holed up in your room, and you haven't even said anything."
"I don't feel like talking," Olivia said quietly.
"Well, if you do, you can talk to me or Davi." Sieg gave a gentle nod. "We've had similar things happen to us." Ken looked shocked at his answer and looked to Davi and Sieg.
Davi finally finished setting up the tent. When he was done, he turned back to Olivia. "I know how you're feeling. Believe me, I've been through this all as well." He rubbed at his scar. "It hurts. It's okay that it hurts. You don't need to suppress it or forget it. When the time comes that you're ready to talk, please let me know. I won't mind. I want to help you if I can."
Olivia turned away from the three of them. "I'm fine."
"Olivia—"
"I said I'm fine!" Her voice finally rose. "Just—just leave me alone. I don't want to talk about anything right now." She began to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Ken asked hesitantly.
"I came out here because I thought we were actually going to do something." Olivia spat out. "It seems like we're just going to stare at a useless dungeon. I don't want to do that. I'm going to go train."
"I'll come with you—" Davi began, but Olivia cut him off.
"No. I want to be alone."
Davi's look steeled, but eventually his shoulders sagged. "I see. If that's what you wish."
"It is." Olivia marched away just as Miranda had done.
"Well, nice going, Davi." Ken rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "You scared her off."
"I'm not good at talking to people…"
"I can see that." Ken sighed and took a seat on a log. "Fucking hell. What now? I was wanting to talk to her some more also, but with everything that happened to her…"
"It's something terrible." Sieg also sighed and began to make a makeshift campfire using rocks and a bit of wood. "It's not easy losing a loved one, and she lost her entire village. When I lost mine, I still had Davi to help me."
"Did you two seriously lose your village?" Ken questioned.
"We were a lot younger." Sieg stared into the fire in silence for several moments. "My world came to an end. One moment, everything was like the way it should have been, and the next… When I woke up, my brother and I were in a strange new world. We weren't even in our kingdom anymore. Somehow, we had traveled the lands and appeared here. I tried to keep my brother safe, but…"
"But?" Ken leaned forward, interested in the tale.
"He left," Sieg said bitterly.
"What?" Ken shot a look at Davi.
Davi was also quietly looking into the fire. "I needed some space." He said simply.
"Some space." Sieg's bitter look grew, though it was unseen from beneath his mask. "At the age of fifteen, Davi ditched me. We were all each other had. We had only been in this kingdom for a few years, and I did my best to train him and get a job that could support him, yet he ran away. You know I looked for you, right? And each time I'd find you, you'd run off again. You were traveling with that silver-haired bitch. Why? Why did you run away? Why didn't you even say anything to me in the few days we've been back together? As soon as I get you back, you run off again to do another mission. Why don't you talk to me?"
Ken looked back and forth between the two brothers, clearly interested in the family spat unfolding before her. It was a lot more fun to watch one happen rather than be in one.
Eventually, Davi did give an answer. "I needed some space." He finally said. His blue eyes quietly stared down at the fire in silence because he knew that was a lie. The truth was a lot simpler. The image of Evelyn, with her kind smile, burned into his mind. "It wasn't easy for me. It wasn't easy being your brother."
"Like hell it wasn't." Sieg's voice rose. "When we got to this land, you and I didn't know jackshit. I learned everything! It was me who figured out what time period we were in, it was me who got us a house, it was me who began to teach you where Dad left off—"
"I didn't want to be taught anything." Davi's voice didn't rise and actually became quieter. "Why would I want Dad's teachings to continue?"
"We had no choice. We needed to survive." Sieg said sternly. "I taught you how to use a sword, and you thanked me by running away and ditching me for another teacher."
"I always hated holding a sword, and you knew. You didn't stop, though. You beat on me every day and called it training because the truth is you blame me for what happened and hate me." Davi accused.
Sieg's anger finally reached a boiling point. "Of course, I hated you! You got Noble killed!"
An awkward silence filled the woods. Ken stood up and clapped her hands together. "Alrighty! So maybe we agree that we should play the quiet game going forward?" She offered. "How about none of us talk and—"
A wave of mana suddenly filled the air. Davi felt his scar burn, and both Sieg and Ken sensed it through their mana-sensing. The air rippled, but before any of them could move, a spell was activated.
An outline of energy appeared around Ken like a barrier. It was a bright green and squeezed down on her, causing her to let out a yelp of pain. Then the skin-tight barrier pulled back, and she was lifted off the ground and flung through the air. She was thrown so fast that neither Davi nor Sieg was able to reach her as she went flying into the dungeon, being dragged in by the barrier's owner.
"Red!" Sieg yelled for her as he watched Ken vanish into the darkness. "Shit. Alright, Davi, you stay here and I'll—"
"Row Shadow Armor." Davi leapt into the dungeon, his armor forming around him as he practically rolled down the stairs, skipping most of them.
"Seriously! Fuck it! Row Electric Aura!" A massive burst of orange lightning formed around Sieg, and he moved with insane speed, also entering the dungeon.
Meanwhile, unknown to Olivia, she had walked a great distance away from the dungeon entrance in order not to be heard. Once she got far enough, she used her spell and summoned up her scythe. Out of a mix of rage and anger, she began to hack away at a tree.
Her scythe sliced into it, tearing out chunks of wood, and she struck at it over and over again, her blade growing with every bit of her wrath.
Everyone kept telling her that she should have been sad and hurt and that it was okay to be like that, but those emotions had come and gone. It wasn't sorrow. It was rage. Pure and simple. Absolute anger.
Anger at herself for not being strong enough to stop Bloom the day he came for Davi, since that could have prevented what happened to Rosco.
Anger at herself for not taking Bruno's warnings seriously and not checking on Rosco sooner, for that could have possibly saved his life.
Anger at herself for not being as sad as everyone thought she should have been. For making them all worry about her. For not being able to speak to them the way she wanted.
Anger at not talking to Rosco more when she had the chance. She could have spent so much more time with him. There was so much she wanted to tell him, so much she wanted to say, and yet she wasn't going to get that chance.
Rosco was gone.
The place in her heart that held him now had a hole.
And that hole was infected with anger.
Why? Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't it have been stopped? Why couldn't Rosco have lived? What use was being a Knight and wanting to save everyone if she wasn't even able to save the man who raised her?
Why did her father put her in Rosco's care if this was how the story would turn out? Why did she have to go through the pain?
Olivia let out a loud yell and swung her scythe even harder, and this time the entire tree was split in two and collapsed, falling over.
She panted, her chest rising and falling, and sweat ran down her face. She didn't stop, though. In the next moment, she attacked another tree and started chopping it down. And as she did this, a blue box appeared in front of her.
Maya could speak to her in the real world, as it had been a lie. She didn't know why Maya had lied about that or what else she was lying about, but she didn't care. She barely even registered the words Maya spoke.
'Losing a loved one is a great and deep pain. Do you know what mages use for their spells? It's emotions. The emotion of pain tends to be the strongest, according to what Maya has gathered. That pain you're feeling. That self-hatred. Those are the same emotions 'he' once felt when he lost the one he loved most.'
Olivia's scythe tore through a second tree.
'If pain is the strongest of all emotions and Haru was the strongest Knight, then do you think that means she was also the one who was in the most pain? Maya thinks so. Maya believes that the machine that pretended to be a person was constantly hurting because she went against the natural order of what she was.'
Another tree fell.
'The pain you're feeling is good. Keep thinking about it. Let your wrath grow. Imagine how much stronger you can become. Think about how much better things would be if you were as strong as Haru. You surely could have prevented this. You could have stopped Rosco from dying. Why didn't you? Why did you let him die? Why are you so useless? Why are you even alive? You're trash, absolute scum, worthless, pathetic, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless—'
Was it even Maya that was speaking anymore? Olivia had stopped reading the messages a while ago, and in turn, her own thoughts began to mingle in and mix with them.
With another scream, she swung her scythe, but it never reached the tree.
"I think that's enough." A familiar voice broke through the haze of her anger and madness, and Olivia blinked, suddenly coming to. The blue box was gone. Or maybe it hadn't actually been there and she had imagined it all. Now back to reality, she realized that a hand was wrapped tightly around her wrist, halting her swing. "I think you need to stop and catch your breath before you hurt yourself."
Olivia spun around and glared at the figure who stood next to her now. It was a man in a white hoodie and dressed in white pants. He had silver hair and the same dull eyes as Miranda, but this wasn't Miranda. This was another member of the Phoenix Flight guild. She had only seen him around a couple of times, mostly at night when he would stalk around.
Merlin. That was his name.
Merlin now stood before her.
"What do you want?" Olivia spat out. "Actually, why are you even here?"
Had Merlin followed Miranda?
Merlin gazed at her, and then he let out a sigh. "I have to do everything myself." He let go of her wrist and placed his hands on either side of her head. "Alright. Let's see what we're working with."
"What are you—"
"Vil Memory Step."
There was a flash of white light, and Merlin stepped forward, entering Olivia's memory.