The First Descent into The Labyrinth (4)

As the Tertias approached, his face serene and his steps light, Cyrus ordered Imran to go and fetch the chest just in case more people came out of the woodwork.

"I am unsure how willing Imran is to fight fellow students" thought Cyrus as he stood behind his hostages with his sword drawn.

Minerva raised an eyebrow at such actions but voiced no disagreement and took her place next to Cyrus. As she looked upon the oncoming student, however, a look revulsion could clearly be seen on her face…much more than usual by the fact that she was gripping her sabre with force that could perhaps shatter bone.

"Is she …ah what was the word… projecting again?" thought Cyrus, as he noted that Minerva seemed to be seeing someone else in the student. "One unstable individual and one meek of heart, these allies are more trouble than I had initially thought hmmm."

Nevertheless, Cyrus focused his attention on the matter at hand as he unceremoniously clasped Minerva on the back to wake her up which caused her to visibly shiver and give a quick glare to Cyrus. Alas, he was focusing fully on the person in front of him who had arrived within speaking distance but respectfully maintained just that.

"Greetings Cyrus, Quintus of Glacies. What a pleasure to finally meet you in person." said the man, his words full of grace and honor.

"Spare me the pleasantries Cornelius and get down to business. You know the situation" said Cyrus, while gesturing with his sword.

"It seems you have caught me in quite the conundrum, but you did save my companions even if only temporarily. I am sure we can work this out" said Cornelius, his light tone never breaking.

"How about I give you my directives for your trouble, I can always earn more after all" said Cornelius with a warm smile.

Cyrus was slightly off put by the unusual behavior of Cornelius, who seemed to not even care that he was being outright robbed.

"I would not mind your directives, but I already have an ample supply of them. I also do not doubt that in the future I will be able to earn many more…no… I think that there is much more for me to gain" said Cyrus with a smile as well, except this one was cold and cruel.

Cornelius was visibly stumped, as he wondered what else Cyrus could possibly want. He was left in confusion for a while longer, as Imran had returned with the chest at this point. Cyrus directed Imran to set the chest down and beckoned him over, whispering something in his ear. Imran was first surprised at whatever was said but then greed filled his eyes shortly after as he happily pulled out several blank documents from his storage along with multiple pens. He then proceeded to happily write away seven contracts with astonishing speed, using the chest to write on, which clearly showed that this is something he is most familiar with.

With pleasure clearly evident on his face, Imran handed out the six contracts to each member of the opposing group.

"Hey Cyrus, this one is too busy clutching his arm in pain to sign this" said Imran, in reference to the one Vita student who had their arm chewed on.

"What use is your domain if you cannot do such a simple thing" derided Cyrus as he used a small amount of will to stop the bleeding of the student. "Sign the contract if you wish to be healed fully, get on with it" said an impatient Cyrus.

Meanwhile Cornelius was reading the contract that was handed to him, which he promptly signed after reading it in full.

"An odd thing to desire from us, but it is welcome indeed. While we may gain no boons, we would have already been eliminated if not for you. We will also still be able to temper our bodies and minds, gaining something more than mere material possessions" said Cornelius, oozing with sincerity.

With these words the rest of his group signed the contracts as well, with tears in their eyes as they knew it was their fault that such a situation even occurred. After signing them, Imran delivered them to Cyrus who signed his name on them as well since he was the acting leader of his own party at the moment, only after reading it himself first just in case.

"Legally Binding Document,

The signatories shall agree to cooperate with one another for the entire duration of the 'Labyrinth' event created by Glacies. Tertias Cornelius' party will forsake all rewards, loot, and bounties for the duration of the cooperation while also giving full command privileges to Quintus Cyrus' party. The lives of the commanded will be guaranteed, so long as all orders are adhered to properly and they do not come into any type of conflict or attempt to bring indirect harm to Quintus Cyrus' party. All clauses will be guaranteed by all Fidem directives owned by both parties as well as their current enrollment in Glacies.

Signed Quintus Cyrus

Signed…"

Satisfied with the work Imran had done, he signed each of the documents in succession while musing that perhaps Imran should combine them all into one…maybe this was his way of getting revenge on Cyrus for the chest carrying thought he as he signed each one in succession. He then stored them all and said,

"However you take it is of no concern to me, so long as you follow orders. Now, we need to deal with our current circumstances" said Cyrus, in reference to both the battlefield and the baggage he had gained alongside Cornelius.

"As we are now contracted, we will abide by your will benefactor. What would you have us do?" asked Cornelius from below, as he was currently healing his allies.

"Benefactor? Is he a member of some kind of cult?" wondered Cyrus as he began creating a plan of action.

"I have gained a powerful tool, and some far less useless ones…but with some effort I can make use of even them. While the trials we face will be powerful due to this, when we are all back to full strength I doubt anything that we would face will be out of our capability to handle. Four capable fighters and five meatshields, of which six are capable of using varying levels of the Vita spells…Imran will have infinite sand to use for delaying actions, defense, and perhaps fleeing while Minerva can help mitigate the stamina bleed from the desert conditions. Perfection" thought Cyrus inwardly, pleased with the outcome of vents.

While in the outer world he said,

"We need to move, this area will become a hotspot for sandcrawlers soon as they will be attracted by the smell of the battle. Use clean sand to remove as much of the gore from your blades and self as possible, the less that exists the less likely the crawlers will find us. Assuming there is a night in this place, we will be in the clear when night arrives. At that point we can make camp and rest until morning comes, as these beasts never operate during the night. Well there are other things to worry about at night, but they are far rarer than sandcrawlers during the day."

Cornelius nodded in agreement, which caused the rest of his group to accept the orders easily as well, and with each quickly recovering thanks to Cornelius apparent mastery of healing spells the meat shields were quickly up and on their feet. Cleaning themselves and collecting their weaponry, and Imran his chest, the group moved at a jog towards a random direction away from where the battlefield.

Cornelius' group of six ran in front with Cyrus' group bringing up the rear, clearly not fully trusting of their sudden alliance. Jogging through the desert, with only short breaks to cast a quick spell to keep them going, the two groups continued forth for an unknown amount of time as they had no way to keep track of it. This continued until a change in the sky occurred, with the day changing abruptly to night.

This happening paused all of them in their tracks, making them realize once again that they were not in the real world.

"This should be enough then, let us make camp and rest. Keep your weapons in a spot easy to reach, just in case" commanded Cyrus as he pulled his tent from his storage, alongside his spare tent.

"You had another one in there?" asked Imran incredulously as he stared at Cyrus sack with thinly veiled desire.

"I did…is something wrong?" asked Cyrus, curious about the intense reaction his ally was showing.

"That storage equipment of yours, how are you able to use such a high quality item? The more space it holds the more will required to operate it, yet you use it like it is nothing. If such a thing were a norm, then no one would need caravans to transport supplies anymore as they would just transport it hidden on their person in a bag like yours…" said Imran still in shock.

"Weird…take a look at it if you want, just cease your drool" said Cyrus offhandedly as he passed the sack to Imran.

Walking past Imran, who was observing the sack with various tools he produced from who knows where, he carried the folded tent towards Cornelius' group who were sitting on the sand resting their tired bodies.

"Take this, if you have any warm clothing I suggest you put it on. The air will quickly turn from intense heat to equally intense cold, I do not think you wish to be pulled out of the test for nearly freezing to death…not to mention you have no use to me in the case of such an event" said Cyrus, his voice uncaring.

"Thank you benefactor, such an act of kindness will surely be rewarded" said Cornelius as he accepted the tent.

"What a freak" thought Cyrus as he set up his own tent for his group

"You and Imran can sleep in the tent, take this to keep yourselves warm during the night. I will stay on watch outside, staying awake for another day is fine for me" said Cyrus as he threw his survival blanket to Minerva.

Minerva looked at Cyrus for a moment, perhaps wondering why he was being so considerate, before saying

"As much as I do not want to admit it, you are the most proficient when it comes to combat. Not to mention that you have the advantage of this area mirroring your homeland, you need the rest the most if we are to gain the most benefits from this event" said Minerva, accurately analyzing the situation.

"Perhaps that is true, but I can function normally despite the lack of sleep perfectly fine. Furthermore, I have not spent much will so I do not need to recover" said Cyrus, whilst thinking within that he could also use his odd ability to sacrifice stamina for will if needed.

"Not to mention, that I have my doubts as to how recovered you are…" said Cyrus as he walked towards Minerva with his hand out, as if he was going to inspect her with his Vita domain.

Minerva's body posture took a defensive posture, as she stepped back slightly.

"You may be hiding it well, but to me it is all too obvious. Your physical ailments combined with the mental burden you are carrying around, while it may produce an extremely interesting reaction…right now, as much as it pains me, I am more concerned with gaining as much as I can from this event. I do not need you to do something silly, albeit highly fascinating, such as…" said Cyrus, stopping as he leaned in ever so slightly to continue in a whisper.

"Such as if you were to attack Cornelius all of a sudden"

To which Minerva responded plainly and perhaps too quick and rushed, "I do not like him, he rubs me the wrong way"

"Oh? Does he now. Perhaps he reminds you of something…or someone?" asked Cyrus, amusement evident on his face as he sought to tunnel his way into the mind of Minerva bit by bit.

Feeling her eyes widen in shock, from being read so easily no doubt, she took a deep breathe and calmed herself. Having regained her chilly exterior, she met Cyrus' gaze head on and said

"Maybe, maybe not. But I will not jeopardize our task at hand."

"Good, but I remain to be convinced. Sleep tonight, end of discussion. I am the leader as of now, correct? So do as commanded" stated Cyrus definitively, before leaving Minerva to simmer in annoyance in order to retrieve his sack from Imran.

"This storage equipment…while it appears to not be of any special at first glance, once I looked at it closely with the necessary tools I found out the secret to this!" said Imran excitedly as he pointed towards the jewels on the sack itself.

"These jewels are all charged with an incredible amount of will in a way that is unique to high ranking mages, not to mention how precious these gems are. There are varying grades of gem, depending on the color the higher the grade it is which means the more will it can hold…all of these are most likely of extremely high quality but I cannot tell specifically as they were all dyed carefully to hide such a fact" finished Imran.

"Well mystery solved I guess?" said Cyrus as he took the sack, not caring too much about the discovery other than wondering why Cato had given him so many precious items.

Sighing at how little his ally cared about the discovery, Imran searched for a reason to vindicate his obsession until it finally hit him.

"Eventually the amount of stored will in these gems will run out from your constant usage. I suggest that you try to send any excess will you have each night into the gems, so that you can try to get as much use out of it as you can. This will only delay the inevitable ever so slightly, as there is no way you could replenish the amount used each time you use it" said Imran in warning.

"Point taken, I will keep that in mind. Now, go rest in the tent. I will be keeping watch, and you desperately need sleep. My spell is essentially just tricking your body into thinking that you are awake. It is not so advanced that it is actually replenishing anything, in fact it is extremely basic in nature just hard to discover" said Cyrus as he took his storage equipment back from Imran, who let it go reluctantly, and walked towards the center of the camp while taking out items to start a fire from it.

As he passed Imran what he did not notice, however, was the slight glint that was contained within Imran's eyes as he gazed upon the back of Cyrus before looking at Minerva. What was going through his head was unknown, but perhaps his conversation with Minerva was not as quiet as he had initially thought.