Starry sky talk

The group of survivors from the canyon rush had arrived by a beautiful lake surrounded by a mountain. It was a place where many ghost-wyrms flew and socialized. They had been walking through the mountains to reach the nearest town, Hillfront. It was controlled by the Lion Clan and a much-awaited destination for Clara, the escort leader.

“Can’t we just do it like that every time and explode everything into pieces?” Hamon regained balance as he almost tripped on a rock. Theo had just finished telling him what happened on the canyon.

“Hmm... Maybe?” Theo answered while he committed to memory every survivor's face who was walking with them. “The conditions were good last time. We had people defending an area for me to set up the ritual. The monster also came to it by its own volition.”

“We should keep doing that. Your power is almost cheating.” Hamon smirked, “just share the experience with me next time,” and laughed.

“It’s not cheating.” Theo shrugged. “I’m as close to a glass cannon as it comes in the abyss.”

“Glass cannon.” Hamon made some air quotes. “You fight in close quarters better than I do, and I invest everything in physique.”

“That’s because you suck at fighting.” Theo laughed.

“As if.” Hamon pouted. If it was before, he would have thought that was true. Nowadays, he knew he wasn’t that weak, Theo was just monstrous in every aspect.

Theo kept distracting himself with his upgrades while they walked.

You have upgraded your blessing ‘Mind rites’ three times and gained the perks: extra ritual, extra ritual, mass rituals.

That was the mark he was looking for. Aside from the extra ritual slots, the perk ‘mass rituals’ would let him gather external help to power up his rituals to a certain degree. That was the biggest downside of ritualists. They were usually too weak and took too long to become useful. It took a long time in his past life to enable the ‘mass rituals’ perks. Now he would be able to set up large scale rituals and become a key person much sooner.

You have upgraded your blessing ‘Artificer of Maladum’ and gained the perk: targeting.

Theo didn’t know what would happen, and it would require much more testing, so he didn’t get his hopes up yet. If it was anything like ‘Mind rites’, the first upgrade would not be that game-changing. He hoped being able to change two characteristics instead of one would result in something useful for his artifacts.

Theo went into planning around his most glaring weakness at the moment: not being able to focus on two tasks at once. It would prove invaluable if he wanted to focus on anything else while preparing a ritual. He already had more than enough mana at the moment to execute his plans.

Theo decided to focus all the experience he gained on the split of his brainpower. That way, he would be able to perform rituals while doing something else, or upgrade his body while walking, for example, which he couldn’t right now; the waste of time was bothering him immensely. Nowadays, there was always a need for complete concentration and focus to do those kinds of tasks, it was too much of a risk.

The road was long but pretty safe. The Lion Clan had been maintaining this path clear of monsters to prevent problems later on. The group set up a camp on a clearing to spend the night on. With some luck, they would be able to reach Hillfront by tomorrow's evening.

The night sky was beautiful. Hamon appreciated the distant stars in this world. They were colorful and much more numerous than the ones he could see on earth. That immense sky, however, made him feel alone, even if he didn’t notice it.

For the first time since coming into the abyss, he felt he could die. The fights had been hard and dangerous before, but it all had a light tone somewhat. Theo’s presence made him feel everything was always under control, always safe.

The last fight was different. The hordes upon hordes of monsters advanced on them. Every bite and tear, he felt on his body. They slashed and cut him, only for his body to be mended up again for more beatings. When Theo depended on him to defend, it was the hardest. The monsters were unrelenting, and the clone’s lifeless eyes didn’t inspire a shred of the safety he usually felt.

They escaped alive in the end, but the possibility of not being able to meet with his mother became more present. In the past, he had resolved himself to become stronger, but lately, he started feeling that nothing he did was ever enough in front of this world.

Theo saw Hamon looking at the stars and misunderstood the mood. “They are beautiful, aren't they?”

“Yeah…” Hamon took a while to understand. “Hey, Theo. Sometimes, do you think you are not enough?”

Theo thought about being cocky and joking but decided to answer seriously in the end. “All the time.”

The answer caught Hamon by surprise, who turned his head. He asked, mostly thinking about himself. To him, Theo was way above everything in this world.

“I’m always making plans. Always thinking about all variables that could change and ways for it to be foiled.” Theo looked at his arms. “Somehow, there is always something missing. Always something obvious that I forget.” He looked back to the sky. “Everything is so vast. I got into the habit of always asking myself: what could I have done differently? What could I have done to change it?” They stayed silent for a while, and Theo continued. “Somehow, even if I do something that I judged perfect previously, there is always some failure, always something that could have been fixed.”

“Isn’t that good?” Hamon asked.

“What?” Theo turned to him.

“It means you are improving, aren’t you?” Hamon smiled.

“Improving...” Theo sighed, taking it as a joke. He didn’t have time for failing again. It was his second time doing everything, how could he fail? It just wasn’t acceptable. Others could try and get things wrong. He was different. The responsibility was too big. Everything needed to be done perfectly; otherwise it wouldn’t be enough.

After another long silent while. “I just want to find her… I don't like dying.”

Theo didn’t know what to answer. For him, not fighting was never an option. He wouldn’t say that to Hamon, though. If the boy wanted, he bet his old group would bend the world in half so he could stay safe. However, he alone wasn’t able to make his wish come true.

For now, Theo tried changing the topic. “How was your life before the abyss, Hamon?” Hilda would never talk about that. They had known each other after Hamon had already died. She was callous and cold about anything related to her past.

Hamon stayed silent for a long while, Theo would have thought he had gone to sleep if not for his open eyes. “You know Theo, now that I think about it… It wasn’t much different, after all.” Hamon laughed. “I think just the type of monsters have changed... but now I can fight them, and have a friend..” The answer and Hamon’s smile caught Theo by surprise.

“Yeah, you have, and me too.” Theo didn’t want to prod much further, so he just smiled.

“Hey, Theo. Can you tell me some story about momma?” Hamon asked.

Theo pondered for a while and decided to end the conversation on a positive note. “Did you know your mother once invaded an enemy base by herself?” He smirked as Hamon perked up to hear. “She wasn’t as uptight as she may seem. Your mother was pretty hot-headed. When she found out one of our team got kidnapped, there was no stopping her.” Theo smiled as he recounted one story of theirs in a military theme. How they had fought for a week straight to save Lucas when no one of his huge following would dare to lift a finger.

“It all worked out in the end. They really didn’t expect we would poison their food, water, air, armor, corpses, and terrain.” Theo laughed while reminiscing.

Hamon went to sleep that night a bit more relaxed. The future was still uncertain, but there was no use worrying that much over it. Maybe his situation was much better right now. Hamon judged that the abyss, or maybe his physique attribute, was messing with his ability to feel or endure pain. He didn’t think he would be able to move forward otherwise.