"The next thing I knew, I was walking across the country, trying to find my sister. I managed to escape before being put to work as my father had intended, but I was alone. There is one thing I remember, however, the crest on the back of the carriage. It's the same as the crest the knights had on their armour.", Maya had told them her story.
She went on to say that she had asked about her sister in a town far from here, but instead they chased her and tried to use her to 'entertain their men'. She had run from them for quite a while until they caught her in the wasteland.
"Sorry for your loss. Anyway, we need to get moving." Rane says, dismissing her story.
Dante gets up, but Maya cannot stand. She was exhausted from being on the run. Dante notices this; therefore, he carries her with them.
They wander the wasteland for a while before the sun sets again. By this point, Maya can walk again. They collect sticks; however, this time they have the help of another person, so they don't have to worry about the cold.
Rane lights the fire.
"We should stay awake in turns to stoke the fire", Rane says, "I'll go first".
Dante and Maya go to sleep around the fire.
A whisper, "Hey, wake up".
Rane wakes up Maya, but unknowingly also wakes up Dante. Dante doesn't get up. Instead, he stays still and keeps his eyes closed.
"It's your turn to stay up and look after the fire", Rane says to Maya. "Also, just so you know, Dante had another side to him. When his hair turns pale white, do not under ANY circumstances upset or anger him."
Dante had overheard their conversation and was confused. He had opened his eyes and slowly sat up, pretending as though he had just woken up. Rane and Maya both look incredibly frightened now, as if they had been caught doing something they shouldn't have.
"YAWNN. What was that about me?" he asked them, acting none the wiser.
He couldn't accept what they had just said.
Another side to me? That's ridiculous. I've always been me as long as I can remember.
He thinks back to when he was covered in the flesh of Kagi's daughter. He understands that they might be right.
But that would mean that Rane knows about me and the space station. Why is she playing dumb? What the hell is going on here?
Dante fell asleep once again. But was woken by Maya. It was his turn to stoke the fire.
"What was your childhood like?" Maya had asked Dante.
"I-It was, erm, I-It wasn't very nice," he replied timidly.
Maya could see that he was still trying to come to terms with his past, so she left that subject there.
Maya had confessed that she feels scared of Rane. She saw some of what happened with the men in armour and was terrified of her. She trusted Dante, and he seemed more human than Rane did. Maya had moved closer towards Dante. She now sat directly next to him, their shoulders touching.
"Do you know which ascendancy Rane has?" Maya asked Dante.
For a brief moment, Maya notices Dante's hair grows white at the roots before fading away again. Dante felt tired momentarily and let out a yawn.
"What's that?" he asked.
"You don't know what an ascendancy is?" Maya said, looking completely shocked, "Anyone, anywhere could tell you what an ascendancy is".
"W-Well, me and Rane, erm, aren't from a-around here", Dante replied nervously, hoping Maya wouldn't find out where they really came from.
Maya lets out a large sigh and holds her head in her hands.
"It's how Rane can create fire out of thin air", Maya says, "It's a gift from God to mankind".
Dante is now invested in what Maya has to say. He leans in and focuses everything on Maya.
"There are 5 different ascendancies: Protector, Nullwalker, Shadow, Deathman, and lastly, the most powerful and rare of them all, Miracle. People cannot choose which ascendancies they get; they say they get given them by a voice in a white space, which they believe is heaven." Maya explains slowly so that Dante understands, "Also, some people, in extremely rare cases, get a different ascendancy. Nobody knows much about them, however.".
Dante is surprised. He thinks back to when he was transported to that space. He recalls the words said to him as well as the terrifying voice they came from.
Return, what could that mean?
"By the way, you never told me how old you are, Dante." Maya changes the subject after seeing Dante so troubled.
"I-I am 16 years old", he replied.
"I'm 17 years old, and I had no idea that I was older than you," Maya replied, "It didn't even cross my mind to ask, why are you and Rane even here?"
"W-We are looking f-for the M-Monolith of Solitude, i-it should be here s-somewhere," Dante said, hoping for some clues, "It's pure white and huge".
"Really?!" Maya was surprised, "I never saw a monolith, but I did see something unusual and white. It was a small pyramid-looking thing embedded in the ground."
Dante was relieved that he and Rane wouldn't have to walk around aimlessly across the wasteland. Maya pointed in the direction that she saw it, saying it was not too far from here.
Maya let out a deep yawn. She was clearly tired. Maya placed her hand on top of Dante's, who had his hands on his knees. Her head now rested on his shoulder.
The following morning, the three set off to find this white pyramid structure. It was not long before they had reached their destination. However, the landscape was not quite what they had all expected. Maya in particular was surprised. Surrounding this small pyramid was a field of rotting corpses. Armour was on most of the corpses, but it had begun to turn into powder. Banners could be seen scattered across the field of corpses; two flags were displayed on them. Both of these flags were unfamiliar to Rane and Dante.
"That's the flag of Nelanis, and that one is Ihmatus," Maya said, surprised that the two didn't know them.
The three investigated the corpses.
Maya was sure there was no battle here when she came across it. And not enough time has passed for them to begin to rot. Dante had become overwhelmed by the intense smell of the bodies.
Suddenly, screams had come from nowhere. Battle cries had rung throughout the land around them. But nobody was here. The three were now on edge, back to back, ready for a fight. Nothing came for them. The sounds of battle persisted, and the clashing of swords and death became louder. It was as if the bodies were still trapped, fighting. A corpse had begun to move, and before long, it had risen. It walked toward the three, slowly. It was not carrying any weapons, but Maya seemed to be overly scared. She, unlike the other two, had noticed its vile yellow eyes, glowing like a flame.
"Necromancy, but that's a chosen tier ascendancy..." Maya said, shaken to the very core of her being.
Rane, upon hearing Maya, also began to look nervous.
Rane ignites her sword, ready for battle. More corpses begin to rise all around them. They are surrounded by around fifty corpses.
Rane knows she cannot fight this many of them off by herself.
"Can you fight with me, Dante?" she asks.
Dante is cowering behind her, shaking out of fear. Maya too. It seems Rane will have to fight all on her own. Rane charges straight ahead towards the moving corpses. She swings her sword and slices three of them in half at once. A corpse on her right lunges at her, trying to grab a hold of Rane. She quickly takes a step to its right to evade it, and begins a counter-attack. She slashes it in half thanks to her flaming sword.
Two more come from the other side, and they split apart to try to surround her. Rane takes her sword and drives it through the one on the left, then, using her other hand, sends a ball of fire towards the other one. The corpse she had stabbed through the chest grabbed onto her sword. It was still moving. Rane, panicked, kicked the corpse down and removed her blade, then sliced it in half. They need to be sliced in half to die properly, she thought. A glimmer of hope. It was all she needed to keep fighting.
All Maya and Dante could do was watch as Rane fought to protect them. Their faces seemed full of guilt, but they were too scared to fight.
Rane continues to slash the walking corpses. She starts panting heavily. Two sneak up behind her and scratch her deeply across her back, causing her to bleed intensely. She continues fighting until only twenty remain. By this point, however, she is at her limit. She cannot draw on any more of this power to fight. Her flaming sword is now a regular sword, and any attempt to cut through the corpse doesn't succeed. The sword gets stuck halfway.
Rane is forced back by zombies, rejoining Maya and Dante. The corpses close in.
As the three are about to be slaughtered by them, they all drop and turn to dust. All twenty of the walking corpses are gone.
Relief flowed over them like a river. They fell to the ground, exhausted from the tension they felt.
Before long, all the other corpses in the area began to turn to dust as well. Transforming the battlefield into another barren wasteland.
Rane had used her flaming power once again to close the wound on her back. She let out a deafening scream as she endured the pain to save herself. Her hand now started to burn at the fingertips. It was quickly put out, but the burned flesh was not going to heal any time soon.
After a long break, they got up again.
"Let's check out this pyramid then", Rane says as she begins to approach it.
Dante and Maya follow behind her.