Third Party

Epsilon found himself hanging off the edge of a tree. It was quite tall, with it being 30 metres or so away from the ground. Both his hands were struggling to grasp at its edge, with his nails digging into its bark.

Straining his body, he grunted as he pulled himself up, and rolled across the uneven floor while panting.

'How did she climb up it so easily?'

Getting here was a story in of itself. While he was tailing her, he ended up encountering a group of scouts from the Primate side, although he was careful enough to not be noticed. He ended up losing the girl for a while, but he was lucky enough to find some very obvious trails left by her.

He chased after her while keeping his distance. The girl didn't look to mind him following her, but Epsilon remembered Awakened Gareth's last warning very carefully.

"Nightmare creatures won't be the only enemy you may encounter on the other side."

He never forgot those words.

Laying up straight, his eyes widened in a daze. The top of the tree was a little cramped but surprisingly spacious. It was walled off by numerous thick branches that grew overhead, and the dense amount of leaves let in just enough sunlight to let him see, but not too much to feel like he was still outside.

There wasn't much furniture here either, apart from the small bed made from dry leaves, and a pile of random sticks in the corner. The girl appeared to be kneeing in front of it, doing something he couldn't quite explain.

"Hello?"

She turned her head in Epsilons direction. She was still wearing that same mask from before, so it was hard to tell who it was outside their hair. It became obvious that it wasn't Emma though.

She moved her hand to pull it off, to which Epsilon was very surprised.

'So it was you...'

He first met this girl in the sleeper cafeteria. She was in the corner of those who didn't socialise along with Emma and himself, but he didn't speak with her very much. But as time passed, he came to learn her name. It was an important one indeed.

"..Ki Song."

Meeting her first... second? Was a surprising thing. She was ranked fourth in strength back in the academy, just above Sylas. That didn't meant she was better with a blade than him though, in fact, that board took everything into account.

Skills with a weapon, Aspect, and even background.

No offence, but although he was a beast with a sword and had a discretely destructive Aspect, he was a nobody. That being, he was just some random kid with a mundane background.

In comparison, Ki Song was a legacy. Sure there were other Legacies that Sylas trumped over, but Ki Song was the start of a barrier that couldn't be pierced by Sword Skills alone. Among Legacies, she made herself, along with Galahad, Anvil and Gracia to be remarkable even among them. That added with a collection of memories that Sylas lacked, they stood at the top.

'I guess I'm lucky to find her? She's not dead, and she even set up a base... she's very competent.'

Gazing at him, she asked,

"Aren't you in Smile Of Heavens Cohort?"

"Yeah.. as you can see, I'm kind of lost right now. My name is Epsilon by the way."

She quickly turned away and began to fumble through the pile of sticks. It was still very hard to tell what she was doing, but she seemed very distracted by it.

An awkward silence then hung in the air. Epsilon didn't exactly know what to say to her, she seemed very adamant at not talking to him.

"Hello?"

She didn't even bother to look at his face this time.

"What now!?"

He flinched.

'Do I irritate her?'

He was just a nobody as well compared to her status, or maybe she just doesn't get along with people that well. It would explain why she was in the corner with Emma in the first place.

"We should probably plan on how to escape this place, right?"

"We will."

She was awfully blunt and straight to the point. She made it clear she would team up with Epsilon at least.

"I saw an exit.. You should've seen it to since we're this high up. Why don't we try to escape from there?"

"No. Not yet at least. As long as we stay here, we can keep getting stronger if we don't step out of line. Those Nightmare Creatures are in some kind of territory war, and its been going on for a really long time. Just look at the corpses. As long as we hang near their battlefield, we can keep stealing soul shards from both sides, and they'll keep assuming its the enemy that's taking them. They don't even know we are here."

She then rolled a generous amount Soul Shards towards Epsilon, without even looking back at him. He quickly combined this with the small trove of shards he collected himself, and so Epsilon felt very rich all of a sudden.

"Thanks."

"The stronger you are, the faster we can harvest Soul Shards. They'll fight again tomorrow, so get ready."

He just quietly nodded, and began to smash the fragments one by one. It didn't take too long to absorb them all, and out of habit, he checked on Nero's runes to see his progress.

'He hasn't made any at all...'

Nero's runes hadn't grown in the last day. Had he not found anything to kill yet? Or maybe something had gone wrong. There was no way to know.

Sighing, Epsilon looked back over to Ki Song. She was still fumbling through the pile of sticks she'd gathered for some odd reason. With nothing better to do, he decided to go see exactly what it was. She wouldn't mind right?

Standing up, Epsilon slowly walked over to her to get a better look. As he did, he asked,

"So what exactly are you doing?"

Ki Song quickly shouted at him,

"Hey! Stay back!"

Epsilon paused. She seemed to slowly turn her head, before shifting it back towards the pile of sticks.

His eyes squinted for just a moment.

'Is she.. blushing??'

"Would it kill you to put some clothes on???"

"Ah..."

He had been naked for a while now, so when he made that loincloth, he got far too comfortable in it since it was all he had. But to everyone else, he was damn near butt naked. He hadn't even realized himself how exposed he was until it was mentioned.

"Ah..!"

She was a girl too... would that be harassment then? This does count as cheating, doesn't it?

"Wait! I don't have anything else to wear!"

That thought didn't last long though. He too quickly turned bright pink, as a wave of embarrassment overcame him.

'Someone just kill me now!'

Without thinking too much, he ran back to the small opening in the tree and began to climb down with haste. Maybe it would be best if they remained separate for now...