Sirius could feel the mana density in the air lighten, the ambient mana no longer feels abundant and dense in the atmosphere.
He's back on Earth.
He should be happy, should've been satisfied that he can now finally return.
But...
Why does it feel frustrating?
Shaking his head weakly, he looks up at Chad, who's dragging him away from the Abyss as he sighs.
"Thank you, Chad."
Sirius says with a groan, his body feels very weak. Probably from the abuse it had experienced over the days.
Chad smirks at Sirius before nodding.
"It's fine."
Chad and Sirius looks around, examining their surroundings. The gate seems to be positioned on a road, with a collapsed bridge that steeps upward from down the road. Looking up at the slope, Chad spots Adam, standing on the bridge.
"Chad... help me stand up."
Sirius says weakly as Chad nods before throwing Sirius' arm around Chad's shoulder as he helps Sirius stand.
"Adam, where are the others?"
Adam looks back at Chad who is acting as a crutch for Sirius. Walking towards Adam, the both of them stand behind him, Adam is standing near the edge of the bridge, looking over the city it seems.
"They went off to find shelter, I'm... determining things."
Adam said, his face grim as he looks back to the front. Chad looks at Adam in confusion.
Standing next to Adam, the both of them finally understood his grim face.
There were hordes of Calamities, some in group, some alone. But it is obvious that they are fighting amongst themselves.
But, the scale of it is far larger than the turf war in that small cave.
"Looking at the sun, I can roughly tell that we're somewhere southeast of the Post."
Sirius upon hearing it frowns, bewildered of how far they had gone.
"Now we're further away..."
Adam nods, sighing as he rub his eyes.
"Well, one thing for sure is that there are no signs of any Usurpers. At least as far as my Rune could detect."
Sirius nods before speaking.
"Save up your mana, we can't spend it as lenient as we did in the Abyss."
Adam nods before turning back and walking past Sirius and Chad, slowly walking down the slope to which the both of them follows.
Looking back at Sirius, Adam's eyes soften.
"Right... thanks for helping us out of that Abyss. Thanks too Chad, for helping Sirius."
"Of course, I was always going to help anyway!"
"Mmh. No problem..."
Chad and Sirius each replies, one full of spirit while the other, exhausted, in pain. Adam chuckles upon hearing both of their responses as his feet touch the dirty road and slips his hands inside his pockets.
Ahead, Adam walks towards a supermarket, entering past the broken glass door and see Thea and the others.
Sol noticed them walking in the run-down supermarket and a smile paints her face, a smile laced with concern though, but relief evident in it too.
Sirius smiles back at her, as the other four look and see Sirius stumbling with Chad as a crutch.
"Sirius, glad to see you're okay... and thanks."
Thea's voice escapes her lips as she looks at Sirius while laying down on the ground, unable to move.
"Mmhm. You too, thanks for taking care of that werewolf."
Thea chuckles, raising both of her arms up in victory.
"Yeah. I got the soul too. I'm pretty close to breaking through and advancing to Ruler."
Sirius blinks a few times before smiling.
"That's nice. I'm still... well, one out of six."
Sirius said as he sits down next to Thea, his eyes trail down to her legs, limp.
"Your legs okay?"
"Yeah, just sore, jello, and everything bitter."
Sirius chuckles, letting out a sigh as he looks up at the ceiling.
"At least there's nothing broken or something... that's good."
Thea nods before looking at Adam,
"So, how is the situation out there?"
Adam sighs upon hearing her question, scratching the back of his head.
"Well, first of all we got Calamities having turf wars it seems, not only are there a lot of em, they're grouped. Kinda like soldiers. Second of all, we're somewhere southeast considering the sun. Though, we'll have to gather more information on where we exactly are."
Adam finished, letting the words sink in Thea's mind as she sighs.
"That's... bad. Fallens are most likely in the groups, leading the Seeds. Father didn't really tell me much about the Southeast, only that it hasn't been conquered. Scouts sent to the southeast of the Post also didn't notice any sign of Usurpers. But... it was a few months ago."
Chad groans, sitting on the floor before forming a rock behind him to rest his head on.
"Don't tell me we're going to fight another Usurper...? Not gonna lie, the Mist that we fought, if it ever was a Usurper, was a weak one. It relied on that werewolf and the army of ghouls. It only served to strengthen its subordinate."
"Did you forget how we basically lost our hearing in that mist on the first floor that we had to scream to even sound audible enough?"
Yuki fired back, looking at Chad with a bit of exasperation before following with another.
"Look, it's not about strength and power Chad. Senses, psychology, and other things matter, that mist could be as much as dangerous as the strongest Usurper if it got its hands on another Usurper."
Chad looks at Yuki in silence before sighing and scratching his head.
"Yeah yeah, okay."
Yuki rolls his eyes, muttering something incomprehensible underneath his breath as Chad's brows furrow.
"What was that Yuki?"
"No, nothing."
Yuki glance at Chad, clearly looking at him with frustration.
"Alright. Stop it you two."
Thea's voice ring out, laced with authority as she glares at Yuki and Chad.
Luna too stare at Yuki as though as he is in fault, and he is, partially. Chad silenced himself as he sees Thea's glare.
Sol, though not stopping her big sister, merely rubs Thea's shoulder. Her red eyes gazing over those similar eyes.
Adam sighs, feeling Sirius' gaze on him, he turns to Sirius as Sirius seemingly ask him a silent question.
'Is this normal?'
Said Sirius with a raised eyebrow,
'Kind of?'
Said Adam with a shrug.
Sirius blinks a few times before nodding as Adam lets out a cough.
"Back to the point. Though we have no confirmation on whether or not there is an Usurper, we should act based on the fact that there's probably an Usurper hiding in the ranks."
Everyone nods, before Anna turns to look at Thea and voiced a concern.
"Lady boss, do we stay here and make this a base or do we stay somewhere else?"
The others look at Thea as she stays silent, thinking of what to do but not before looking at her friends slowly.
"What about you guys? What are your thoughts on this?"
The others start on looking at each other before Adam speaks up first, setting the tone.
"In my opinion, we go somewhere else. At least farther away from the Gate. While we're at it, we should gather information while heading north to the direction of the Post."
Thea seemingly smiles, Adam looks at her with a deadpan while the others chuckle at her response.
Thea, a bit confused looks around at her teammates.
"What's wrong..?"
Sol giggles before shaking her head.
"No, nothing Thea. I agree with Adam."
The others agree with Sol as Thea smiles before propping herself up. Sol worrily helps Thea by pressing a hand on her back and shoulder.
Adam suddenly cuts in as Thea was about to speak.
"No no, sorry but Thea, Sirius, you guys stay here. Recuperate. Sol, Anna, and Chad stay here just in case, while I bring Luna and Yuki to scout the area."
"I agree with Adam, Thea. You need to let my your body rest while my Rune do the work it does."
Thea slowly nods as she sighs before lowering herself down to the floor, she looks at Adam and gives him a nod.
"Take care Adam, you too Luna, Yuki."
She gaze over Luna and Yuki, who nods back in response as the three of them walks out of the supermarket, ready to scout out the area.
Leaving the five of them alone, Thea turns to Sirius, gauging his figure.
"You look horrible."
Sirius looks back at Thea before looking back at himself.
"I see."
Thea's brows furrow upon hearing his lukewarm response, but she could see the way his brows furrowing too.
"You know, you're kinda aloof, you know that?"
Sol looks at Thea with a sigh, while Anna looks at Thea with surprise apparent on her face. Chad meanwhile simply nods a few time, agreeing with Thea.
Sirius looks at her, blinking before nodding once.
"I see."
Thea blinks a few time before looking at Sol as if she just witnessed a flat-earther speaking about how the Earth is flat.
Sol chuckles, looking at Sirius who is looking at them with... confusion?
"Dry too."
"Huh... okay."
Sirius' short responses leaves Thea taking a deep breath as Sol giggles, while Anna laughs loudly and carelessly without elegance.
"Reminds us of little Luna eh? Lady boss?"
Thea nods upon hearing Anna's whim.
"That's why I said we got another one."
Anna and Thea laughs as Chad follows suit, Sol giggles softly as she looks at Sirius who is frowning.
She slowly stands up before walking up to Sirius and sitting next to him.
"What she meant was... you should speak more you know? Chat with us more and tell us about how you feel. Joke around too."
Her soft words leaves Sirius frowning, he nods before opening his mouth.
"Okay... mmh..."
Sirius stops, the others blink, leaning in. Interested.
"What did the janitor say when he jumped out of the closet?"
Thea and Sol's eyes widen in horror.
A memory flash through their minds.
"What?"
Chad asks, tilting his head a bit.
"Supplies."
Sirius chuckles upon hearing his joke, not hearing any chuckle or laughter, he looks at the four of them.
...
...
...
"Huh... was it not good? Let me try another."
"N-No i-"
"How does a penguin build its house?"
The edge of Sirius' lips curl up slightly, though his lips pressed tight against each other.
"Igloos it together."
Thea tilts her head back, face facing the heavens as she takes in a deep breath through her nose.
Anna rubs her eyes, before her eyes gleam red as she stares at Sirius.
Chad... Chad chuckled.
Sirius looks at Chad with a smile on his face, clearly happy that someone chuckled.
Sol chuckles nervously, before clapping silently. Sirius looks at her too with a smile on his face.
"Haha... that was good Sirius..."
'The tone of the "Supplies" wasn't even high, just a low tone...'
Sol thinks to herself as Sirius looks at her, she could've sworn she saw sparkles in his eyes if not for the fact that it's gone the second she "saw" it.
She coughs awkwardly, changing the topic.
"Right. I was going to ask you this, did you manage to harm the Mist?"
She asked as Thea now looks at Sirius — no longer trying to close her eyes and ignore him — as she await his response.
"I managed to clear the mist surrounding it. To the point where its Soul was visible. But I don't think I fully did, because after that, the mist started to reform around the Soul, before fully forming back into the Mist."
Sirius says with a sigh, looking up to the ceiling.
"Thought I had it. Turns out I didn't."
Sol nods before smiling at him, looking at him on the eyes as he look back at her eyes.
"It's okay. You did your best."
"What sis said. At least you created a window for us to escape."
Thea's eyes stay over Sirius, a nod to him as Sirius nods back.
"I managed to kill some of the ghouls with my blast but not all of them. That Mist now has less soldiers at the very least, I'm sure that would help in the future."
They all stay quiet, digesting the information. Informations already recounted, assignments assigned, now what?
Thea and Sirius felt those thoughts swirling in their minds. Truthfully, the both of them feel restless, aching to do something, anything.
Sol, noticing the both of their frowns suddenly lights up with an idea.
She turns to look at Sirius.
"Say Sirius. Would it be okay for us to know about your stories? Like, when you worked with Father or how you met him?"
Thea instantly leans toward their direction, scooching over, obviously interested. Anna and Chad too as they scooch closer.
Sirius blinks a few times before nodding slowly.
"Sure I guess."