“I… may not be fixed yet, but… I feel better than before. Even without the Energy you give me, the highs are higher, and the lows, less low. It would be nice to just have you fix it, but I think I can fix it myself, and I think I should. I think that I owe it to the person I was before… before all this. She opened the wound, and I’m going to close it.” She shakes her head, meeting my eyes. “Does that make any sense?”

I’m profoundly annoyed at first, seeing as how I’ll be unable to test my theory, but the truth is that I’m kicking myself for not seeing the truth of her words earlier. She started off the conversation by apologizing. Yeah, she’s done it before, but usual surrounded by tons of emotion. This was a more level, reasonable recognition that she’d gone a bit overboard. That, compared with the fucking homicidal, uncaring, and broken mess she was before? It’s hard to believe only a few days have passed.

“Yeah.” I say, nodding. “It makes a lot of sense. I’m… kinda impressed, to be honest.”

She rolls her eyes. “Of course, because I live for your admiration. The great Anthony and his infinite wisdom.”

I turn away slightly. “It’s… Amadeus, actually.”

A silence hangs for a moment, before she starts laughing uncontrollably.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! You hid your real name? I can’t even blame you, oh my god, it fits so well! Amadeus!” She contains her laughter just enough to sit up and see the annoyance clearly plastered on my face. She coughs slightly, badly trying to cover a giggle. “Ah, mmm. Sorry, I meant: it’s a… very nice name.”

“Yeah.” I say, turning away and heading back up the incline. What a charmer that one is.

“Wait wait wait, hold on a second. I found something cool yesterday while I was blowing off steam.”

I stop, partially turning. “What, a sense of decency?”

She snorts. “Hell no, but I did find a building. A tower, in fact, in the fork of the river, over by all that mist.”

“Neat, what did you find?”

“Ah, well… that’s actually what I was going to ask: there are monsters around it, so do you wanna come exploring? Honestly, it’s tradition at this point.”

“We explore one dungeon, that’s hardly a tradition… but yeah- wait, don’t you want to sleep or something?”

“Oh, how brash, asking me to sleep with you so suddenly.” She makes an exaggerated attempt at fluttering her eyelids, and it’s my turn to roll my eyes.

“But you must leave Kaythe somewhere else, I can’t have it watching us.”

“Oh my god, why.”

“Ha! I don’t think I’ve seen your cheeks that red since the last time someone punched you in the face! Go have your nap, Amadeus, but make it short. Or else I’ll come wake you~” She ends the sentence with an overly suggestive tone. Absolutely mad, that woman.

-—

Dean fidgeted. He couldn’t sleep, and apparently, he couldn’t keep watch either. He wanted to go… do something. Nate wouldn’t have wanted him to just sit around… but Nate would have wanted him to protect the group.

So he waited, and watched.

A pack of Carnines roamed through, barking like shitty dogs, but they did not stumble upon the dungeon.

Unfortunate. He would have loved the outlet for his aggression.

Soon, the strange twilight that preceded the day’s direct sunlight fell over the land, and he stood. Rav appeared next to him, with a slightly drowsy Samuel.

“These accommodations were most uncomfortable. I would much prefer the outside grasses.”

“The Carnines that just ran past would have killed you and eaten you.” Dean kept his voice level, but only barely. He had little patience for anything at the moment. “If you would like to continue sleeping, you can stay behind.”

Samuel rubbed his eyes drearily. “I appreciate the concern, my good man, but I am beholden to my word. Lead the way.”

“Don’t you need a weapon?”

“No.”

Dean regarded him for a second, before turning away.

They moved in relative silence, only broken by the odd clinking of equipment. Hours passed before Samuel spoke.

“I say, I do believe that would be the culprits. They look far too happy to see us, gentlemen.” Two men, with smiles that could only be classified as ‘predatory’ were approaching them.

Maybe so, thought Dean as he drew his sword, but not as happy as I.

—-

I awoke to a small headache and a not-so-great feeling body, but overall? Not bad for only sleeping for three hours. The perks of this body are well appreciated.

Before I go get Lauren, I need to make a decision. Retrain, or Crystalize. It’s… not that hard of a decision. I use Transfuse Energy really frequently, so I’ll definitely get it back up… it’s just that I don’t have the Power to do so yet. Aggravating, but hopefully I’ll get the last bit I need to push myself over the edge.

… I’m really bad at saving up Power for this Ascending thing.

---

“I remember the fog being less… opaque.” I muse to no one in particular.

“It gets worse the deeper you go. Also, try to watch out for the invisible monsters in there. No clue how dangerous they are, but yeah.”

“... Just that? Sounds easy enough.” The sarcasm is thick in my voice as I scan the area, and a pit of dread forms in my stomach as I realize… I can’t see anything out of the ordinary in the fog. “Where’s that tower you were talking about? I don’t see anything.”

“Hah, how the tables have turned. Look, it’s right there, how can you not see it?” She points at the fork in the river, which I can clearly see has no tower on it.

I fix her with a level glare, but she merely smiles pleasantly back at me. What the fuck is she pulling? Is this more illusion shit?

The answer was a resolute ‘yes’.

“Be really quiet, we’ll have to hear them approach.”

I activate Hide and instantly feel myself exist a little less in the world. But… I’m curious. I can’t see them, but can Kaythe? He saw through previous illusions… so maybe? I channel my focus into Kaythe, and suddenly, I see through his eye. From his perch on my shoulder, the vision he gives me is almost from my normal perspective, which makes the experience slightly less unpleasant. I turn my body actual body, effectively making his vision pan side to side as I want, and the results are… weird. There are muddled lines, almost like the kind of shimmering you would see coming from a really hot surface, pretty much all around us. In the distance, I see strangely shaped bundles of static. The static moves around a little, but that might just be distortion from the shimmering air. At the fork in the river, there’s a weird distortion effect, almost like a fun-house mirror. The anomaly is pretty tall and not that wide, but seems mostly static. Is… that the tower?

I pull back to my own senses, taking a moment to shake of the weirdness of the transition, and relay the information to Lauren.

“Did the static things look like… long, lanky people?”

“Not really, more like huddled masses. I couldn’t make out much detail.”

She nods slowly. “I bet it’s them, just resting or something. Waiting. Let’s avoid them if we can. I don’t know how many chased me the last time I was here, but it seemed like a lot, and I don’t exactly think we could fight them without seeing them. It’s not like you can paint the targets for me or anything. It would be shit.”

“Fair. Stealth it is.”