Chapter 113

Companionship (I)

Emma and Diya were walking side by side, surrounded by protruding rocks whose edges shimmered, as though sharp like a blade’s. The two were chattering carelessly, as though they were walking by a countryside lake rather than what appeared to be a hell-inspired landscape. Neither appeared too worried over being jumped, their weapons tucked in their inventories, though both wore a full set of armor.

“You... you were right, by the way,” Diya said. “That dress really did fit me well.”

“Oh? You bought it?” Emma asked with a grin.

“Yes...”

“Ha ha ha, good, you really looked like a princess in it!” she added. “A smokin’ hot princess, at that.”

“D-don’t say that!” Diya flushed red and elbowed Emma gently. “I’m not.”

“Sure, sure, you keep sayin’ that, and I’ll keep on teasing you. Anyway, I ought to go shopping too. Recently, I’ve noticed, my bras have gotten a bit tight.”

“!!?”

“Ha ha ha, no, no, my boobs didn’t grow,” Emma laughed freely for a moment, noting Diya’s widened eyes as they veered downward toward the former’s chest. “It’s the armor,” Emma elaborated. “It presses tightly and those tiny nicks get into places and they hurt. I think I need more room.”

"Oh..." Diya subconsciously sighed a breath of relief, inadvertently looking down at herself. Though she was by no means small and was never really self-conscious over her size, it was still notable, the difference.

“Ah, come on, tits are tits,” Emma rolled her eyes with a groan. “Trust me with this -- guys... don’t give a shit. Literally. They’ll suck on anything that’s attached to a woman. It’s kinda creepy, actually.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah,” Emma nodded. “I mean, I’m mostly going off Cain and what my friends have told me, but stories match up.”

“... that is weird." Diya said with a strange look on her face. "Don't they have preferences? Like us?"

“Uh, I mean, sure,” Emma shrugged. “But, y’know, preferences to them don’t matter that much. At least not in terms of looks.”

“--e-eh? Really? I’d figure it was other way around.”

“Yeah, you’d think, right? But, hey, at least now we can stop stereotyping. Now, if only they’d do the same. By the way, you gotta talk to Lana.”

“Huh?”

“She saw you in the bathroom one time, doing something with your hair and styling it, and she wanted to ask you to teach ever since.”

“I--I’ll teach her! The moment I get back!”

“A-alright, no need to get so excited, it’s not a rocket launch...”

“... it’s... it’s just that I’ve never been asked... you know... stuff like this.”

“What? Girly stuff?”

“Y-yeah...”

“... I’m not supposed to say anything,” Emma mumbled with a sigh, noticing the girl’s downtrodden expression. “But Cain and Rick have reached out back to your home. The information is scarce, though, and ever since conflicts down there broke out over the Towers... well, let’s just say it’s difficult to ‘get in’. I’m sure Rick will have some news about your family and your ‘uncle’ when we return.”

“... he’s... he’s probably dead.”

“Huh?”

“My family... my family probably had him killed when I escaped,” Diya mumbled into her breasts, her voice cracking.

“Now--you can’t be certain, okay? I’m sure that he’s fine. They’ll definitely find him.”

"I... I appreciate it, I really do," Diya said as she looked up, meeting Emma's gaze squarely. The latter noted the redness in the girl's eyes and a peculiar trace of deep-seethed regret. "But... I know them. I grew up with them. They... they are nice people, for the most part -- as long as you do right by the family. But... they aren't really forgiving."

“...”

“It’s fine--it really is,” Diya added hurriedly when she noticed that Emma’s expression was faltering as well. “I’ve... I’ve said my goodbyes and I know... I know he’s watching me from someplace, cheering me on.”

“... if you say so.” Emma said, though hardly trusted a word. She was all-too-familiar with expressions like these, namely whenever her friends would ask her whether she was fine after Cain and she got divorced. And her answers were the same -- she’d made her peace with it, she was fine, she said her goodbyes, she was ready to move on... yet, even up until Cain ‘returned’ from the future, she had never truly made her peace with it, always having been expectant that he’d come to his senses and that the two of them would get back together.

“Ah, there’s something in front -- sixty... yards? Yards! Or so... I think...” Diya interrupted Emma’s thoughts and drew her attention to the front, toward a small pool of lava that was bubbling strangely.

“Alright,” Emma said as a grin appeared on her face at the same time as the warhammer appeared in her hands. “Let’s do this.”

**

Daniel’s eyes kept jumping toward Larua and off of her, in the distance, as he wished to say a thousand words, yet had barely uttered audible sounds ever since the two departed from the others, a good hour ago. Larua seemed to have not noticed his fidgety nature, going about her own way, curiously examining nearly every strange rock they’d come across, especially those that had kindles of fire-like gems embedded in their surface.

She’d mull around them for a minute or two, almost digging her fingers into one of them, and would then move on to the next.

“Hey,” she suddenly called out, startling him and causing him to nearly stumble. “Don’t you think this rock is strange?” she pointed at a nearby boulder, one not so different than many others they’d encountered -- roughly spherical, jagged, gray, filled with thin layers of dust and ash, and with occasional fire-ember interjected here and there.

“Uh... no?” Daniel mumbled an answer.

“Really? I think there’s something strange about it,” Larua said, inching closer and pulling her index finger over at the surface, scraping a layer of dust and ash. “The layer is much thinner than on the other rocks.”

“So?”

“So, it must have been moved recently,” she suddenly grinned as her eyes veered down. “Hey, how quick you are?”

“Uh--what?”

“Like, your reaction -- is it fast?”

“I guess so?”

“Eh, we’ll test it out,” she said as she curled her fingers into a fist and jerked her arm back, preparing for a punch. “Aim at the eye, okay?!”

“Eye? What ey---” Daniel had no time to ask any more questions since Larua punched the boulder with all her strength -- yet, eerily enough... she didn’t break it. Daniel knew she could -- yet... she didn’t. She merely managed to make it shudder for a moment as a deep, horn-like sound bellowed out, one that nearly caused Daniel to pass out.

“NOW!!” she suddenly called out as Daniel instinctively took out a pair of his daggers, his eyes locating a shining, red dot in the midst of rising dust and ash. He threw both daggers at the same time, aiming directly at the red dot, and snuffing it out a mere second later.

“AUUUUUU!!” an agonizing cry shook the world for a moment, though it was quickly drowned out by Larua’s laughter. Daniel noticed her silver eyes shining like a moon as she approached the place where he saw the red dot. Looking there, on the ground, he saw a palm-sized beetle of sorts, its coating strangely red and shimmering, a pool of blood beneath its body.

“We struck gold, man!!” she exclaimed joyfully, crouching down and picking the beetle up gently. “Do you know what this is?”

“Uh... no?”

“It’s called a ‘Divining Beetle’!” she exclaimed once again, unable to wipe the grin off her face. “They are self-replacing organisms,” she added. “Meaning, when they die, they just rebirth themselves. They can’t mate with one another, so their numbers are always very, very, very low.”

“... e-eh? How the hell did they get to exist, then?”

“... I dunno,” Larua shrugged disinterestedly. “Who cares, man? We got one of ‘em!”

“What’s their use?” Daniel asked, growing curious as well as he walked over and crouched next to her.

“Oh, many,” she said. “Their blood is amazing at helping women keep a younger appearance, their tiny skeleton can be ground into dust and mixed with a few herbs to procure one of the best teas in the world -- it can make even the ‘Sleepless Wights’ fall asleep in the right doses. And, most importantly for you, its eye’s liquid can be extracted and then used as the best vitality-enhancer below the 30th floor.”

“... vitality-enhancer?” Daniel tilted his head in confusion. “I’m an Assassin. I don’t need Vitality.”

“I don’t mean Vitality,” Larua grinned mischievously. “I mean vitality.”

“... vita--what?!” Daniel’s cheeks burned up in fervent red as he backed off, his eyes looking rapidly between the beetle in Larua’s hand as well as the grinning woman. “I--I--I--”

“I know you’re gonna say you don’t need it,” she said. “And, I mean, sure, most guys don’t need it. But, boy, this thing... this thing can keep a lad going for days. And I mean without a single break. How the hell do you think those big-shots maintain their massive harems? Stuff like this! If we find the right buyer... we could get so rich we'd be able to afford to buy the entire goddamn Strata. Aah, just thinking about it..." Daniel's delusions suddenly shattered as she noticed a very strange expression on Larua's face; she was flushed faintly, drool coalescing at the corner of her lips, her eyes shining in a strangely erotic light. Ah, she’s a gold-digger--literally...

Just as he was about to call her out on it, the world quaked violently for a moment as a roar akin to a Dragon’s exploded out into the sky, the accompanying wind tossing both Daniel and Larua to the side and onto their behinds. Their eyes inadvertently searched for the source of the roar and landed to their right, toward where Cain and Senna were supposed to be.

“... what the hell did those two awaken?!!” Larua gasped as she shot to her feet.

"Eh, who cares," Daniel shrugged. "So, khm... this... this beetle. Do we, do we, like, sell it on the low-side, or set up a public auction?"

“Huh? How can you care about the stupid beetle now?!” Wow, she flips the switch rather rapidly, huh? “They’re in trouble!”

“They’re fine,” Daniel said dismissively. “It’s Senna and Cain. If those two can't handle it, we'll all be walking into our coffins by going there. Anyway, tell me about beetle."

“Oh,” Larua calmed down as quickly as she got heated up, her eyes once again alighting as they landed on the beetle. “So, if we go on the low-low we could...”