Everyone stood dumbstruck by what just occurred. Chara seemed to have lost her memory.
"I told you something was wrong with her," Kairi whispered.
Seraphina instantly summoned her staff and charged at Chara. Chara skillfully dodged, confused.
"What are you doing, Seraph?" Chara asked.
"You are not Chara. Leave her body, you monster," Seraphina declared.
"Seraphina, wait. We confirmed she is Chara," I tried calming Seraphina down.
"Then do you have a good explanation about what just occurred?" Seraphina asked.
"I don't know, but let's calm down and assess the situation," I told her. But she still charged at Chara.
"I don't want to fight you to death, Seraph," Chara said.
"Are you implying you can win against me?" Seraphina said while attacking Chara.
"This should be fun," Kofi said as he crossed his arms, watching intently.
"This is fun to you?" I asked angrily.
"Yes, I've always wondered who the strongest female among us is," Kofi replied with excitement while Seraphina was still attacking Chara.
"Remember you said you'll help in a dire situation. Now is the time," I reminded him.
"Come on, this is interesting. Moreover, I said perilous," Kofi retorted.
"It doesn't matter what word you use. Can you be useful now or not?" I asked angrily.
"I can try. But do you want to exhaust your wildcard right now, considering we might be facing an Exalter monster?" He replied with a disappointed tone.
"I don't care. Do something!" I urged him.
As he was about to get moving, Mira appeared in between Seraphina and Chara to stop their fight. She then looked at Seraphina and said:
"Calm down. Have you thought of all the possible reasons first before jumping to fight her?"
Seraphina dismissed her sword then said:
"She is all yours then," and left.
"Someone has to stay with her. We have to talk about what's wrong with her without her being close. Looks like we are going back to the cave," Mira declared.
"Kairi should stay with her. He's naturally the strongest apart from you, and she wouldn't be able to escape," Seraphina said.
"No, I'll stay," I said. "Kairi might be manipulated by her and she might escape. I might not be as strong as Kairi, but I'm stronger."
"What if you let her go because she's your friend?" Kofi asked.
"I won't do that. I know the implication," I answered him.
'Why are you seriously asking me that? She's still my assassin.' I thought.
They all agreed on my explanation and left. I was left alone on the sand with Chara, my supposed assassin.
"Why did you decide to stay?" Chara asked with genuine curiosity.
"Just want to help a friend," I replied.
She chuckled then said:
"I know you know I was sent to kill you." She said while looking straight into my eye. Due to my height and the little distance between us, she had to look up.
'Eh, is she serious right now?' I thought.
"Why'd you think that?" I asked.
"Because I purposely talked about it while I knew you were listening. You guys didn't even bother to hide your presence," she replied after moving away from me.
'Do we need to hide our presence during that time?' I asked myself.
"What do you expect me to say or do?" I asked, confused.
"Oh, nothing. I just thought your reaction would be different. You just acted more cautious. That might really get you killed," she said jokingly.
I replied to her:
"If it's dying for a friend, I just might not be sad," I said.
"No, you won't. It's easier to say if you are not in that situation," she retorted.
"I hope we never get into that situation," I said hopefully.
"What if I turned into a monster right now and tried to eat you?" she said.
"I know you are not a monster. They'll come with the explanation of what's wrong," I assured.
As I said that, Chara immediately got onto the floor and started acting weird.
"Chara? Are you okay?" I asked, concerned and cautious.
'Is she seriously going to turn into a monster?' I thought, a bit scared.
As I tried getting closer, she immediately turned her head toward me and growled.
'What the hell is going on?' I shifted backward.
I heard laughter coming from Chara. She was laughing really hard. The laughter subdued eventually.
"You should have seen your face," Chara laughed at me.
"Hahaha, so funny," I said sarcastically.
Chara was still laughing.
"It is not even that funny," I told her.
"Sorry, it was THAT funny," she calmed herself then said. "You hesitated. You could have died if that were real. You never know what will happen here, so don't hesitate."
"Everyone would hesitate if they were in a situation that'd end a friend's life," I told her.
"Seraph wouldn't," Chara retorted.
"She is different," I told Chara as she stood upright.
"She is not. She just puts herself first," Chara replied to me.
Silence was created between us as I looked up to the starless and lightless sky.
'Do I not put myself first? There's nothing wrong with that. My dad never put himself first, but he destroyed everything he protected in the end. I won't end up like him. I'll protect everything I want to while protecting myself too.' I reaffirmed my goals.
"Why so serious? I think Kofi is right. We should enjoy ourselves," Chara broke my thoughts.
"I am always right," Kofi said behind us.
Behind him was the rest of the squad, but they were a bit far away. Kofi moved closer.
'They must have made a decision,' I thought to myself.
"You told Kairi pigs fly," I referred to Kofi's initial statement.
"Uhm... that was..." Kofi was trying to say something then he paused. "I am always right when I'm not making a joke."
"What is the decision?" I asked Kofi.
"I have been asked to kill Chara," Kofi replied sharply.
"Huh? Who made that decision?" I asked, confused.
"Kairi. He threatened to kill us all if we don't comply, and Mira accepted. We can't really go against those two now," Kofi said with a serious look on his face.
I was about to go on a rampage before I stopped in my tracks after remembering the kind of person Kofi is.
"You are joking, right?" I asked.
"Do I seem like the type that'll joke about such things?" Kofi questioned.
Me and Chara looked at him with the look of pity.
"Ok, you caught me," Kofi said and looked at Chara. "Did you prank him recently?"
Chara replied excitedly:
"Yes, I acted like I was a monster. You should have seen his face. It was so funny."
Chara laughed and Kofi joined in.
"You weren't even there. Why are you even laughing?" I tackled Kofi.
"I can just imagine how you'll look and it was funny in my head." After they laughed for a while, Kofi got a bit serious and said: "Alright, let me get to business. Chara, punch Kofi."
"Eye, sir," Chara said without hesitation and punched me in the guts.
I groaned while holding my stomach.
'That hurts. What the hell is happening.'
Kairi immediately jumped to our location and said:
"What's wrong? Is Chara really a monster?"
"Nah, we're just joking around," Kofi replied.
"I want to join too. Are we doing punch Custos?" Kairi asked.
"No, we are not," I instantly replied to Kofi and shifted my gaze while holding my stomach to Kofi.
"What was that for?" I asked Kofi.
"Special effects," Kofi said as he fist-bumped Chara.
'These two are dangerous to be around.'
"I will start the process now," Kofi said as he moved toward Chara.
He put his hand on Chara's head. After a few seconds, he removed it.
Chara looked confused and said:
"I remember everything now."
"So does that mean you are okay?" I asked Chara.
"I think so," she replied.
"What did you do?" I looked at Kofi and asked.
"Wildcard. I'm a magician. A magician never reveals his trick," Kofi replied.
"That was definitely not a trick," I retorted, trying to get an answer from him.
"You don't understand it, hence a trick," Kofi said as he shifted his attention to Chara. "Whatever did that to you is really powerful, because that almost took half of my ether. I hope you are ready to explain to the guys. They are itching for an explanation." Kofi said then looked at the direction the others are and said:
"She is alright now." Then looked to address us. "Shall we go now?"
We all moved to the cave and sat in a circular format around the lamp. Seraphina first apologized to Chara.
"I'm sorry for attacking you."
"It is alright. I totally understand," Chara replied without any hint of anger.
"Care to explain what happened?" Seraphina asked.
"Alright, so after I went to the ruins and watched over them for a few minutes to confirm if they are truly humans, there was nothing wrong with them. I decided to search the area in case I could find anything dangerous or from where the monster who attacked us the night we arrived came from. So I moved forward away from the ruins. I found a house that wasn't too in shambles like the other houses here. I sensed some presence there. I decided to spy on them. What I saw was dreadful. There were 2 Exalter monsters there. I did not even have enough time to discern how they look because they noticed I spied on them. Even though I did everything to hide my presence. I decided to run away instantly for my life. But I couldn't..." Chara paused for a while before dropping a bomb. "Turns out there was another person here. He's an Exalter. He caught me before I could run, then used some type of mind attack on me. I wasn't going to take you to the human settlement. I was going to take you to him."
After Chara said that, we all thought. Seraphina then addressed her.
"This is a lot to assimilate. If we are facing 3 Exalter ranks with our strength, we might lose."
"Wait, if the guy tried to manipulate you, how did you drop a warning?" Eira asked.
"Well, that—it was using my ability in a weird way. That's what I use to remember some things. I whispered these words immediately I saw him: 'Run, there are 3 Exalter rank monsters'. How it works was that the opposite of whisper is loud. When you speak, the sound is made immediately, but I made the sound to be made later instead of immediately. But since later is an ambiguous time, so later could be tomorrow or next week, I used my ability on my ability itself. That's the tricky part. My ability was being activated around 8 a.m., but by using my ability on the time of the activation to 8 p.m., so the message could reach you. I figured you'll want to move around that time, so I took a gamble. Looks like that guy's ability almost blocked mine. He must have noticed something is off. What should we do?" Chara asked.
"First of all, what the hell is the explanation of your ability? Second of all, what the hell is your ability even about?" I blurted out.
"Well, that's how it works."
"How far is the house from the ruins?" Seraphina asked.
"It is pretty far north," Chara replied.
"Why?" I asked.
"Information is key in this place. We need all the information we can get. They are bound to have some information," Seraphina said.
We agreed with her and prepared thoroughly in case a monster attacked us. We all moved with utmost caution and moved together. We didn't use the lamp so as to not attract anything, but we met a few E-rank monsters on the way. They were killed instantly and procured as food.
After a not-so-long journey, we got to the ruins. We inspected the area for anything. It was relatively safe for now.
We moved underground in the ruins to where the humans are. Chara was the one leading us there. We eventually got to the underground, and Chara was greeted with a spear to her throat.
A scared voice asked:
"Who are you guys?"
"We are the seven musketeers," Kofi answered the man jokingly.
"I will drive this spear into your throat if you don't answer," another scared voice said.
"You shouldn't have given me a choice when you met me," Chara replied and held the edge of the spear with her bare hands and broke it. The spear did little to no damage to her.
The two men who intercepted us fell to the ground and slowly started crawling back.
Eira pointed her lamp to the underground. There were around a thousand men, women, children, and babies in here.
'How did this many people survive? That seems impossible unless they have some powerful figure here.' I analysed.
Seraphina came forward and said:
"We are not here to harm you. We are here to save you."
"Are you sent by the shady man to come trick us again?" the man on the floor asked.
"Shady man?" Seraphina said as she bent down. "Tell me more."
"You guys are not with the shady man? That's a relief, but where are you from?"
"From the realm of the past," Seraphina replied calmly.
"So you are really here to save us." The man stood up and declared. "They are here to get us out of this hell. They didn't abandon us. We are going to be free."
Everyone in the tunnel started jubilating like people who are being promised eternal happiness.
'I guess it's alright to let them be happy. But can we really save them?' I said while smiling at them.
"Something is off with them," Kairi whispered, but this time we could all hear it. The humans couldn't because they are so engrossed in their jubilation.
"Please don't jinx it this time," I pleaded.
Seraphina let them jubilate until they got patient.
"Sorry, we got carried away," the man apologized with a big smile on his face.
"What is your name?" Seraphina asked.
"Bard," the man answered.
"All right, Bard, before we save you, we'll need you to answer 2 questions."
"I will do anything, my lady," Bard replied.
"Who is the shady man? Also, how did you guys survive for this long?"
"I don't know the shady man, but he came some few days ago and promised to save us, but he only brought us more trouble. He left us in a monster territory. We lost most of our people." The excitement in Bard's face a while ago gradually disappeared as he recounted his story. "As for how we survived, we have our own Rouser. I'm sure you are stronger, but he's enough."
"Oh, can I see him?" Seraphina requested.
"Of course." The man then disappeared into the crowd. After a while, he brought a scrawny-looking kid who is barely our age.
There is a semblance of ether energy in him, but he doesn't seem strong enough to protect all these people.
'This guy actually jinxed it.'
"My lady, thank you for saving us. We are truly grateful," the boy appreciated us.
"It is no problem. We'll need you in our future plan. For now, we are about to have a meeting," Seraphina said as she led us out.
We were finally free from the shouts of victory. We can still hear it out here, but it's less.
"What do you guys think? Should we really save them?" Seraphina asked for our opinion.
I was confused by her question and asked.
"You weren't planning on saving them before?" I asked.
"What do you think? There are too many of them. We can't really afford to carry that much burden if not necessary. That's why I'm trying to find your opinions so we can decide if we should save them or not," Seraphina replied.
"What? You are going to base the survival of thousands of lives on what importance exactly? Their life is already important as it is. We need to save them," I tried explaining to her.
"I am not disputing the importance of their life. I'm weighing the benefits of their survival to us."
"You want something in return for saving them?"
"Yes. Saving them will either be beneficial or detrimental, so we have to think wisely before making any decision. We are not carrying more burden with us. We don't even know how to get out of here, and we should carry more burdens because of what?"
"Do you even hear yourself? Why are you acting like humans are tools meant to be discarded because it's not beneficial to you?"
"Our goal here is not to save anybody—at least my goal isn't. You can decide to save them if you want, but not when your decision would affect all of us. Give me a valid reason why I should carry more burdens."
"Because it's the right thing to do."
"According to whom?"
"What's up with your morals?"
"Morality is a social construct created by people to bind other people and justify their actions. It is not 100% right—not even in this place where you have to choose between yourself and some random strangers you met in a place where they are all supposed to be dead."
"Morality is what preserves humanity over the course of history. Why'd it be binding humanity if it's beneficial? You just made a speculation that they are meant to be dead. You are underestimating the tenacity of humans."
"If that is so, let their tenacity keep helping them."
"Alright, stop. It's alright," Eira stopped both of us from arguing. "We will take a vote whether to save them or not. You must each give a reason for your decision. We are 7, so I think we can come to a conclusion instead of you guys arguing. Do we all agree to that setting?"
Everyone agreed except me and Seraphina. We were unresponsive after the heated argument.
"I will go first then," Eira said. "I think we should save them. They have already survived this place for months. They'll know more than us. We might be stronger than all of them combined, but we don't have their experience of survival in here."
After finishing her explanation, Chara went next.
"Frankly, I think the only one we need is that boy, but he might not be willing to help if we abandon his people, so we can save them."
Kofi went next.
"It is too much burden for us to carry, so I don't think we should. We can't even promise to get all of them safely out of here. It's just like we are giving them false hope."
Kairi went next.
"In normal circumstances, I wouldn't be against saving them, but something seems off with them, so I'm not aligning with the idea of saving them."
Everyone looked at Mira as if she's the final dictator.
"I don't think saving them is ideal, so is ignoring. There's no right or wrong at this point. No one will blame you for your choice. I still think saving them is less ideal. In a battle, they'll be a big burden."
"That's 3 people for not saving and 2 for saving. Do you guys want to make a vote?" Eira asked the both of us.
"I think we should save them because it's the right thing to do," I replied.
But I knew we can't save them because Seraphina is going to pick not saving. We looked at Seraphina, waiting for her decision.
"We are going to save them, because I think they'll be beneficial. We'll think of how to handle them. But their knowledge about this place is important."
"Then saving it is," Eira said.
Even though I was happy that we are saving them, I couldn't accept it fully because some of Seraphina's words were true, and I didn't respect the reason she is saving them with.
'This journey is going to be really stressful.'