Chapter 180: Chapter 187: Exodus

Surrounded on all sides by skeleton warriors. Keigan stood alone atop a small hill in the vast cavern. His torch burned brightly with a pale blue glow. After being in the dark for so long my eyes burned on the inside as I looked at it. It was Keigan. That was the first time I ever saw him fight something without a smile on his face…

He let out a powerful roar as he cleaved through several skeletons with one swipe of his greatsword, taking out another with a thrust from his torch. “COME AND TASTE MY METAL!”

He was mad… very mad. I had seen him angry before, but this was different. He was blocking ax blades with his bare hands before turning them against the user, hurling massive two-handed weapons as far as 20 feet through the air… I waited until he was done to get anywhere near him…

He was breathing heavily, and blood dripped down his arm as he spit on the ground before finding his original blade and sheathing it again. “I will find her… watch me.”

‘Well… I guess I can’t say he abandoned me…’ I tried to turn off darksight but when I did it was like I couldn't see anything but the torch, and it was so blinding when I looked at it. My vision was having too much trouble adjusting… In the end, I decided to just continue using it. With his soul being cleansed, and my higher level of control, I was pretty sure I could use it without him knowing.

‘Why on earth are you looking for me here though?’ I let out a sigh, failing to understand his logic, stalling my brain for a moment with the fact that, where I was, is where he actually found me… “You won’t have to look much longer…” I groaned, blocking the light with my armored hand as I cautiously stepped within speaking distance.

He turned to the side, placing his hand back on his sword, ready to draw.

‘Can he still see dark magic after all?’ We both froze still, motionless. I was ready for a fight, but him on the other hand… Like always I couldn’t tell. His hand was on his sword. ‘No shot I win. If it comes down to it I lose him in the darkness.

“SIYA!” He yelled. He ran towards me hugging me tightly in both arms, nearly making me pass out from the sudden pressure as he picked me up. My whole body started to shiver as my skin turned to ice and I groaned in pain. ‘My magic’s acting up again… Well, at least I know I have enough manna back to use it in a pinch…’

“Siya, are you alright? I'm sorry I should have asked you that first. You're not hurt, are you? How did you find me?”

He set me down but he was still a little too close. Even after he put me down. I stepped back clutching my side and raising my arm to create space between us. “Can we just skip this part? I’m alive… Let’s just go home…”

His voice hurt my ears, and being within a few feet of him made me sick. Logically, I thought I would have been able to not let anything bother me, at least until I was safe, but that wasn’t the case. Every time he moved I shuddered. Even if I wasn’t afraid of him directly, my body seemed to have learned all too well that every time he touched me the only result was pain.

‘I should be happy to see him… He said all the right things, the list of ways he could have pissed me off isn’t that long. He didn’t take credit for finding me, saying I found him, he asked if I was ok instead of only caring whether or not I’d technically survive… Technically he did all the right things… So why… Am I even more pissed off than if he hadn’t?’

He cleared his throat. “Right, that's all that matters right now anyway… Your brother and Zu should be waiting for me outside. We can probably still get out of this place before sunset if we hurry.”

“Uh… right...” ‘He's at the entrance? Did I mix up their footprints?’ A rattling bone caught my attention and I froze time. ‘Really… He missed one… This is such a pain. I’m sick of things trying to sneak up on me.’ In that instance though, the answer was simple. All I had to do was block its knife with my armored hand and stab it with my dagger. ‘I could probably handle this much if I was missing a whole arm… One more kill then…’ I resumed time, tensing my arm and starting to move into position.

“SIYAH!” Keigan yelled, yanking my arm and sending a jolt of pain through my side as he tugged me out of the way and reached into the skeleton's ribcage, crushing the stone with his bare hand.

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I coughed, stumbling and falling to my hands and knees, sliding on the ground. ‘Every time he touches me I get hurt…’ I held my breath as I stood back up, slowly moving my hand to cover my arm where it had broken in the past. A small part of me wanted to yell at him, but I was too tired to care, and he had fooled me enough times for anything he did to make sense.

“Sorry, is your arm still hurting.”

I timidly let go of my arm and started walking toward the exit. “N-no it's nothing.” ‘I guess I just have a habit of holding it now when I’m in pain…

He nodded slowly. “Ok, just…Tell me if you need anything.”

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes through the pain in my side. Even with my strengthening magic it was starting to feel worse the more I moved, but it was never so bad that I thought I was in real trouble. The whole way back to the surface we didn’t run into a single enemy, so that helped.

When we made it outside, sure enough there they were. Zu seemed almost as excited as my father was when he first saw me, but Aisidh’s face stayed as carefree as ever. “Knew you’d make it back.” He said confidently, casually leaning forward onto his knees. “With some loot too, I’d say I’m surprised, but I’m not really.”

I was so tired I somehow forgot I was even carrying treasure, my back going completely numb somewhere along the way. “No thanks to you it would seem,” I muttered half-heartedly, trying to make a joke, but my words didn’t even reach my own ears, much less his.

“I admit though. You had even me a bit worried for a second there. Not like I can use dark magic, so all I could do was kill everything in sight through the top 20 floors or so and wait. Gave you an easy time coming out at least.” He casually reached for the leg of a rabbit that was grilling over the fire and took a bite. “Glad you made it.”

‘Of course, he did…’ I dropped the sack of loot on the ground, feeling lighter, but no less numb than before. ‘That’s right… I made it back. And no one had to save me this time… I made it through all on my own. And now… I’m finally done… There is no one more round… I won…’ I walked over to my brother, feeling like I was about to start crying again as I stepped out into the sunlight, finally realizing I was out of the dungeon. ‘I survived…’ My feet slowly caried me to his side, gliding across the ground, instead of stepping properly. I tried to get his attention, but I didn’t know what to say, so I used what felt like the last of my quickly fading strength to lightly tug on his shirt.

“Need something little you little menace?” He grinned.

‘You really had to come up with a weird name for me now of all times…’ I groaned, pushing my eyebrows together as I tried to project my voice loud enough for him to hear. “Im… Going to hug you now… So stand up… And don’t squeeze too tight… I think my ribs are broken…”

Once again It seemed I had broken that unshakable expression of his, making a habit of it. Instead of shock though, his face became painted with a smile so soft, and eyes so gentle, that I almost felt like it was a dream.

‘So this is what it takes to startle you?’ I dimly smiled back as I slowly walked forward into him. It didn’t feel real. I was alive, but as hard as that was to believe on its own, I didn’t just manage to scrape by… well… I guess maybe a little… But I also killed a demon, and then I found my way through a large section of the dungeon on my own… Even though my body seemed to turn to puddy as the tension and stress vanished, I couldn’t help but feel like there was a punchline coming. My body was giving out, but even then I could feel a faint rush of adrenaline, fully expecting a rock slide to crush me, or a meteor to fall from the sky.

“It’s… Really over this time… Right?” I felt my tears start to soak into his shirt as my voice cracked.

He just let out a sigh. “Yup, you made it out safe and sound… Well, maybe not either of those, but hey, you’re still breathing, that’s a plus.”

I laughed, stuttering through my tears and the pain in my side, my little hands grabbing handfuls of his shirt's soft fabric as I hid my face. “No more tests?...”

His hand gently pressed my head against him as he pulled me closer and steadied my weak legs. “Yeah, that's right.”

I didn’t know why I was asking him of all people… Or how he could answer so confidently, but all it took was for him to say it to make it feel true. “Is it ok if I tell you the truth now?”

After a short pause, he kneeled down, matching my height, and wrapped his arms around me. It didn’t hurt at all though, if anything it eased the pain. “You realize lying is the thing that’s usually not ok right?”

I gripped his shirt even tighter. “I was so scared… I’ve been so scared for so long… I don’t ever want to come back here… And the demon… And the wolves, and the zombies… And I hate the cold. Like I really hate it. I never want to be cold again.”

His body became a bit stiffer. “Siya… You did kill the demon right?”

“Of course I killed it, you idiot. Why do you think I’m letting myself cry right now? You said it was all over and you didn’t even know for sure?” I lightly hit him with my fists, not even so much as making him move an inch, or loosen his comforting grip.

My words felt like they were getting caught on each other as I tried to force them out. I wasn’t even sure what I was saying. As far as I was concerned my brain had stopped working an hour ago due to lack of oxygen from my shallow breathing. “And I hate running too. Running fast is fine but long-distance running is stupid, and it makes my feet cramp up… And I want to eat more sweets…” My jaw relaxed as I lost things off the top of my head to complain about, finally starting to catch my breath as my tears dried up.

Everything faded into a blur. To be honest I’m thankful for that. I wasn’t thinking about it, but crying my eyes out in front of three guys was… More than a little embarrassing. It must have been for them too, because not one of them knew what to say for the next several hours after that.

I just dumped everything out right there in the open, telling my brother everything I had been feeling inside of me since the demon first appeared, haunting my mind and terrorizing my soul. It felt like it had been so long. I had been staying strong, and fighting, and doing my best to hold it together, but there was no point anymore. It was over. I won, so there was nothing wrong with finally taking a breather. I didn’t have to be strong anymore… It felt like… I could be myself again. “I better get like a shiny new sword or something for all this.”