Finally, Aika spoke up.
“I never imagined that I would hear a worse story than my own, but it seems like you’ve got me beat.”
Roy turned in surprise to see Aika giving him a smile. She didn’t care that he was a freak. She didn’t care that he’d merged with a Dungeon core to gain his power as a Martial Artist. She didn’t even care that he’d lied about being in danger from an outside source.
All she’d done was smiled, and accepted him for who he was, and that made him feel…well, he didn’t really know how to feel.
Suddenly, Aika’s expression changed to one of surprise, and a light, “oh!” escaped her lips.
“What is it?” Roy asked, feeling the moment passing.
“I…I’ve found what I need to advance,” she replied with a grin.
Roy was about to ask her what she meant by that, when a green Torii gate appeared before them in midair, and Aika rose to her feet.
“Sorry to leave you here, Roy, but it looks like my test awaits.”
She walked out to the edge of the outcropping, turning one last time to flash him a wide smile. It carried with it such joy that Roy found himself smiling as well, though he didn’t know why. She leaped through the gate, and both disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Roy to stare out at the clearing alone.
“So, that is the truth that you have been hiding from me, Herald Leroy. Shameful!”
Roy’s head whipped around, his heart leaping up into his throat as his eyes landed on his teacher, who stood there with his arms behind his back, and his expression, filled with anger.
33
The trail was gone. There was nothing for it, Koya knew. He and the twins had tracked the trail for most of a week into The Crater, sure that they were right on their quarry’s tail, right before it had simply vanished. Now they were left floundering, like a fish out of water.
Izu and Kozu stood in silence as Koya muttered to himself, raging at the unfairness of it all and wondering if he could have any worse luck. Here he was, stranded in the middle of a hostile environment full of Beasts and who knew what else, and he had no direction. The one lead he’d been doggedly following for the last several months had vanished, just like that, and now he had a decision to make: Forge on and hope he picked up the trail again or give up and head back to the Waterwood.
He definitely knew which option would be the safer one, but it physically pained him to think of giving up. He didn’t want to give up, after all he’d endured. Glancing back at the twins, he noticed how they both instinctively shrank back from him, their shoulders hunching up in fear. When they had awoken several weeks ago to find that he was lying next to a pile of corpses, they had assumed that he’d been the one to kill them all.
Koya did not contradict them, though he hoped that the Beast King wouldn’t take offense and kill him for taking the credit. He’d been thinking carefully about the monster he’d encountered over the last few weeks and had decided that there was no way he was just above Green. If he had to wager a guess, he’d have to say that the legendary figure must have been several stages higher than that. Though exactly how many, he couldn’t be sure.
Either way, the Beast King’s interest in him had begun wearing at his nerves, slowly eroding at his sanity. Every sound made him jump; every shifting of stone made him twitch, and every flash of lightning caused a small outburst in which he would launch Water Blades in all directions until he drained his core dry.
Izu and Kozu remained silent throughout, not daring to argue with Koya for fear of what he would do to them.
His eyes moved back and forth once more, tracing the line in which the Essence had been leading him. Finally, he made up his mind and motioned the two bigger boys ahead of him.
“We’re gonna keep going. This thief can’t be too far ahead of us. I’m sure of it.”
The twins moved quickly to obey, only turning back to get confirmation of his orders to move on before doing so.
Koya smirked to himself as they started walking again, glad he’d thought up this idea. Just because he was willing to keep moving, didn’t mean he couldn’t take a few precautions. The twins would make perfect shields if they were suddenly attacked.
Lightning flashed endlessly overhead as they continued on through the blasted wastelands of The Crater, eyes roaming over the endless spires and looking out for the dangerous Beasts they knew to be hiding among them. So far, they’d been quite fortunate, managing to hide from half a dozen different Beasts, and getting a further few to attack each other instead of them
With their cores suppressed, it was relatively easy for them to avoid most danger. As long as they all kept their sense fine-tuned, they would be able to sense danger before they ran into it. It was only because of this that Koya suddenly became aware of a massive gathering of Essence to the north.
Motioning to Izu and Kozu to follow him, he quickly turned, heading in that direction. He had his suspicions, and sure enough, they were soon confirmed as a very obviously man-made wall came into view.
A city!
Koya was tempted to rush up to the walls and begin banging to be allowed in, but he held himself back, instead deciding to watch the walls for a few days to decide if it was safe to approach. He quickly went about getting camp set up, and by that, it meant that he had Izu and Kozu lay everything out while he watched the walls.
Once they were set up, he decided that two days should be enough time to gauge whether they were dangerous or not. There was no chance of them being noticed, so long as they kept themselves suppressed and out of sight. So long as they did that, they would be completely overlooked in a landscape filled with monstrously powerful Beasts.
They set up a guard rotation, with Kozu taking the first one and Koya hunkering down to try and get some sleep. It was interrupted less than an hour later by an insistent shaking on his shoulder.
“This better be important,” he growled, cracking his eyes open to glare at a terrified looking Kozu.
The bigger boy nodded quickly, gesturing frantically to the walls and talking in a rush.
“I didn’t believe it when I saw him. We already killed him, but there he was, alive and kicking. And he seemed to be fine, too…”
Koya held up a hand to get him to quiet down. He couldn’t make heads or tails on what he was talking about, but he saw Izu standing at the lookout post they’d created by piling a few rocks on top of one another and pointing frantically into the distance, looking as though he’d seen a ghost.
“What is it?” Koya asked, now intrigued as to what could have gotten them both so worked up.
“It’s him,” Izu said, gesturing frantically at three rapidly fading humans, and a large Beast.
“Who?” Kozu asked, straining his eyes to their limit to get a good look at the quickly moving group.
“On top of the weasel thing!” Izu exclaimed, but it wasn’t necessary, as Koya’s eyes had already locked onto the familiar form of Herald Leroy.
That was impossible! Herald Leroy was dead! He’d broken his legs and left him at the mercy of the Dungeon. There was no way…
Koya’s thoughts came to a screaming halt as his mind began to slowly piece things together. Of course! He’d been looking for a traitor in the clan but hadn’t even considered the freak, due to him being dead. But if he’d been working with someone, perhaps the other two with him, then it was entirely possible that he’d been the one to steal the Dungeon core from them.
Koya could feel his hands curling into fists as he thought of all the misfortune that had befallen him because of this freak, who was still very much alive. He could feel his Essence beginning to churn in his veins as his eyes locked on the person who had ruined his life.
Teeth clenching in anger, Koya felt his blood beginning to boil as he thought of all the myriad of ways he would make the cripple suffer before he killed him. He would make sure to bring his head back to the clan, along with core he’d stolen.