Day 9 Part 1

I blink at her, my mind running a mile a minute. "What?" I echo, completely thrown off by her out-of-character rant. Sera, being usually calm and respectful, never talked in such a way unless her pesky brother was involved.

[❈Congratulations❈]

[You have completed the task, well done you bum!]

Not now you shitty system! "What?....I'm sorry, I-I I've been running for days and haven't eaten anything," she admits, her legs buckling underneath her as she flops down on the ground.

Running for days? Now that's a phrase I haven't heard in a while. I watch her with a growing sense of dread. She's so weak...

"Just what exactly happened?" I finally ask, my voice hoarse. There's a strange prickling sensation in my eyes and I have to blink a few times to get rid of it. Someone has suffered as much as me, and I feel relieved, but it's also a bitter type of relief. It's one thing to suffer alone, but another to watch someone else experience the same pain.

She sniffs, rubbing her arm across her eyes. "...about, I think 3 or four days ago after we killed this ugly half-dead giant wolf, after I sliced its head off Mira found a map. The map led to some ruins. When we arrived we had to go through this maze underground....I got lost, I lost the group and stepped on a trap. I fell deeper and couldn't get back up. For three days I've been running non-stop. I got into a fight with some monsters and fell through a warp gate...I couldn't get back through the other side since there are a lot of annoying pests and my sword broke," she manages to get out, her voice cracking as tears roll down her cheeks.

My heart clenches at the look of defeat on her face. Sera, always so tough and independent, now reduced to this. It's not something I ever wanted to see. And yet, there's a part of me that's gleefully skipping around, doing a victory dance. I've suffered, and now you have too. What's the saying? Misery loves company? I feel terrible for feeling this way, but hey, I never claimed to be a saint. A warp gate huh? I didn't expect one to be here, the gates were probably created to connect the island ruins.

From atop my head, Ilka breaks out in a fit of laughter. It's so sudden and unexpected that I flinch. "What in the world is so funny, Ilka?" I demand, frowning at the absurdity of the situation.

She's laughing so hard, she's practically rolling on top of my head. "O-Oh man," she gasps, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye. "This is too much. All that drama, all that suffering, and she just...she just fell through a gate? Oh, the irony!"

"What?" I say, my eyes widening as I realize just how ridiculous the situation really is. I can't help but join Ilka in her laughter, it's too contagious.

Sera looks at me as if I've lost my mind. Her brow furrows in confusion, clearly unable to understand what's so amusing about her predicament.

I try to explain, I really do. But every time I catch Ilka's eye, I start laughing all over again. "I'm sorry, Sera," I manage to gasp out. "It's just...you fell? That's just so..."

"Pathetic?" Sera finishes for me, her tone icy. I immediately sober up, a sheepish grin on my face. Maybe laughing wasn't the best approach.

"I'm sorry," I immediately backtrack, trying to diffuse the situation. "It's not that I find your predicament laughable. It's...well...you've been having a harder time than me, and I feel relieved someone has struggled more than I have," I trail off, realizing too late that explaining the situation only makes it sound worse.

"Right..." Sera drawls, her eyebrow arched in disbelief. She sighs heavily and glances around the room, her eyes widening in alarm as she takes in the sight of the dead monster. "D-did you kill that by yourself?"

Crap. I hadn't planned on this part. I glance at the dead monster and then back at her, scrambling to come up with an explanation. "Oh, that," I begin, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly. "No, I didn't exactly...um...kill it myself."

Ilka cackles from her perch atop my head. "This should be good," she chuckles, clearly enjoying my predicament. Sera frowns, not at Ilka of course, since she can't see or hear her, but at me.

"You see," I start again, injecting as much sincerity into my voice as possible, "I was just strolling along, trying to find my way out, when this guy"—I jerk my thumb at the dead monster—"decided to introduce himself. Only he wasn't exactly interested in pleasantries, if you catch my drift."

Sera arches an eyebrow, her face an unreadable mask. "Go on," she prompts.

"So, I did what any reasonable person would do in such a situation. I ran. And ran. And ran some more. But this guy, he was pretty tenacious. Kept tailing me like I owed him money or something."

Ilka breaks into another fit of laughter. I shoot her a warning glare, but it's wasted on her. "Oh man, Kael. You sure know how to weave a tale," she snorts.

Ignoring her, I press on. "And just when I thought I was about to be monster chow, another one of these guys comes charging out of nowhere and...well...let's just say there was a bit of a territorial dispute. It was really more of a...mutual monster takedown."

Sera blinks, looking at me, then at the dead monster, then back at me. "So, you're saying another monster killed it?"

"Pretty much, yeah." I nod, hoping she buys it. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of that story. It's just plausible enough to be believable.

There's a pause, and then Sera breaks into a grin. "To think there's another monster here that can kill a beast of this size...good job surviving I guess."

"You have no idea how hard I've had it," I reply with an exhausted sigh.

Ilka's laughter echoes in my ears. "You're such a fraud, Kael! Just tell her you killed it for fucks sake," she howls.

"Sera, how many days has it been since the test began?" I ask, my thoughts spiralling off on their own. Since splitting up with Isadora and Biana, time has become this abstract entity for me, without much meaning. I'm not even sure if I've lost track of it or if it's lost track of me.

She groans and murmurs, "I don't know, but I think it's nine days."

I nearly choke on my own saliva at her answer. Nine days? That means I've been absorbing that bloody magic stone for three whole days? Sure, they say time flies when you're having fun, but this...this is just surreal. And not in a trippy, psychedelic way. More in a 'I've-just-found-out-I've-been-comatose-for-three-days' way. Poor Ilka...I guess she truly was bored out of her mind.

"Oh shit," I mumble, my mind reeling. If it's been nine days, then they must have sent a search party, right? No, wait, they would have found us if they had. They must have trackers in the uniforms or something. Oh God, what if they're on their way? No, I don't want to deal with all the questions that might appear.

Ilka's peals of laughter ring out, disrupting my train of thought. "Oh, Kael," she cackles. "Your face is priceless right now!"

"I am glad you find this amusing," I mutter, glaring up at her. She's rolling around on my head, clutching her sides.

Pulling myself together, I decide it's time to face the music. Or rather, the pack of monsters. "Take me to the warp gate," I tell Sera, getting to my feet. I might not have any sense of time, but I do have a sense of self-preservation. And right now, that sense is telling me to get the hell out of here.

She raises an eyebrow at me, as if she can't believe what I'm asking. "There's a lot of monsters, you know," she warns me. "Are you sure you can handle them?"

I pause for a moment, considering her words. "Can any of them use magic?" I ask her, hoping the answer is 'no'. Because if the answer is 'yes', then I'm royally screwed.

She shakes her head, and I let out a sigh of relief. "No," she replies.

"How far is it?" I ask, bracing myself for the answer. Knowing my luck, it's probably at the other end of the world or something.

Sera points vaguely in a direction. "It's a good two-day journey," she says.

Two days. Great. Just great. I guess it could be worse. It could be three days. But still, two days of fighting off monsters and trying not to die. What fun. There's no way I can head there. I need to head back and find Isadora and Biana.

"There's no way, heading there would be a problem for me," I groan, rubbing my temples. Sera sighs and slumps back onto the ground, echoing my sentiment.

I take a moment to study her, this formidable warrior that has been reduced to a husk. There's an unspoken understanding between us, born out of shared suffering. Part of me wants to reach out, to offer her a comforting hand. The other part of me, the bigger and admittedly more jerkish part, is gleefully whispering, 'I told you so.' I feel a perverse sense of vindication seeing her like this. It's not pretty, I know. But hey, I never claimed to be a good person.

I glance down at my new sword, still gleaming under the dim light of the cavern. An idea forms in my mind and I look back at Sera, hoping this will work. "Hey, if I give you a sword, will you be able to find your way back?"

Sera gives a long sigh, her gaze unfocused. "I...I don't want to..." she mutters, the will to fight having apparently deserted her. She looks so worn out, so utterly defeated. I feel a pang of empathy for her, but also a dash of deja vu. It's like looking in a mirror. A mirror that's slightly more attractive and female, but a mirror nonetheless.

At her words, something akin to sorrow claws its way up my chest and I feel a tear slip down my cheek. It's a strange sensation, crying for someone else's suffering. Especially when it's someone like Sera. Someone who is strong and is... suffering, it feels so refreshing.

Shaking my head, I try to dispel the melancholy clouding my mind. "You know, we'll be getting some time off after this test," I say, trying to sound casual. "I'm planning on taking my crew out, maybe to a fancy restaurant." I watch her for a reaction, but her face remains impassive.

"That includes Ash, I was going to invite you," I add as an afterthought, hoping the mention of her brother would prompt some sort of response.

At this, she blinks, her brow furrowing as she processes my words. I mentally pat myself on the back. Touchdown!

"But, if your class doesn't pass, that might not be possible," I sigh, injecting a note of regret into my tone.

Her eyes widen at this, and for a moment, I feel a twinge of guilt. But then, the absurdity of the situation hits me. Here I am, trying to motivate someone to not fail by offering them a meal at a fancy restaurant with her sibling. I'm sure she's never eaten out at any good place given that she's the poorest person I know.

Before I can ponder any further on the comedic tragedy of our lives, Ilka interrupts, her voice echoing inside my head. "Oh, Kael. Playing the good Samaritan now, are we? Should I start calling you Saint Kael?"

Her sarcastic comment snaps me out of my introspective mood. "Shut up, Ilka," I mutter under my breath, forgetting that Sera can't hear her. "What would you know about being decent?"

Ilka snorts, a sound that is eerily similar to a pig's snort. "Oh, I know plenty about being decent, you imbecile," she retorts. "I just choose not to be."

I glance down at the pair of daggers strapped to my side. They're the only blades I have left, the only ones I've managed to not lose or break during my stint in this godforsaken realm. Honestly, I don't really use them since I have Umbra, and I've only been using them for such mundane tasks as gutting animals.

With a sigh, I unstrap them and hold them out to Sera. "I don't have a sword to spare, but these two should do the trick," I say, trying to sound more confident than I feel. I watch as her gaze drifts from the daggers to my face and back again. She reaches out, her fingers brushing the hilts of the weapons.

"These are...better than the knife Nyssa made me," she admits, her voice a soft whisper. The relief in her voice is palpable, making me feel both guilty and satisfied at the same time. Guilty for her suffering, but satisfied that I've managed to help, if only a little.

A laugh bubbles up inside me, escaping as a chuckle. "Biana and I made them, so they should handle quite a bit of force," I boast, proud of the work we'd put into these blades.

Her brow furrows in confusion. "Biana? The sloth- I mean, the daughter of Dutchess Rosalind?" She asks, her tone laced with incredulity.

"Yep, that's her. The same lazy-ass sloth you're thinking of," I confirm, my grin widening. The thought of Biana being referred to as a sloth is too amusing, and I can't help but laugh.