CHAPTER 56: Meeting at the worst time

Daikichi POV

Mamoru used a portal to get to Suyeon back to us. Thinking it’s all over; the broken crystal suddenly vacuumed up all of the ice around it and formed a giant ice ball. The light emitted from the inside was so bright it made it hard to stare right into it.

“It’s getting bigger! Run!” Takumi shouts and I noticed it kept sucking up the ice in the surrounding area making the ice ball bigger and bigger. Trees, dirt, rock, frozen fishes, our rafts, everything was getting sucked into it and if we don't get away, soon, we’ll be pulled into it also. We all started sprinting away in panic as I look around me frantically.

“Yasu!” I shouted looking around and I couldn’t see him where we left him. “Yasu!!”

“I got him!” Dorang shouts as I see him carrying Yasu on his back with the help of Ms. Sam.

Miki-sensei carried Nala while the rest of the group carried those who are injured and couldn’t fully run. Takumi handed an injured person he was carrying and ran off towards Dorang who struggled to piggyback Yasu. Takumi took Yasu off him and ran as fast as he can while Ms. Sam and Dorang followed right behind him. With Kana's help, I carried Suyeon and we all ran towards the mountain hoping that we’ll get to the other side before the blast happens.

“Guys a cave! Get in! I have a plan!” Lisa shouted as she went on a full sprint towards a cave on a distance. As much of a bad idea to go inside when there’s a giant nuke behind us, Lisa seemed confident as she ran in first. The light got brighter and brighter to the point that it hurts looking in any direction.

“Everyone in?!” Lisa asked and everyone shouted in agreement. Using her sword as a staff, she stabbed it onto the ground and shouted another skill that caused a blue light to appear covering the floor, ceiling, and walls for a few seconds before it slowly faded away. She ran towards the entrance and chanted another skill that made rocks and dirt come together blocking the entrance. The light completely disappeared as soon as Lisa closed the entrance and darkness surrounded us.

“Light orb!” I hear Lisa’s voice and a white orb appeared illuminating everything. She chanted something again and the same as before, the wall in front of her where the entrance used to be was covered with a blue light that slowly faded away. I remembered the torches Yasu gave us and I took mine out the bag and gave it to Lisa to light it. Everyone else who had a torch took it out and we scattered them around while Lisa hanged some on the walls using her skills.

"I think we're far enough," I whisper trying to listen as the floor and walls continued to rumble. "I hope we don't get caved in."

"It won't, I put strengthening magic on the walls turning a solid material similar to metal," Lisa says and I nod to her. She deactivated her light orb and we were shrouded in dim lighting. I look towards everyone and most of Dorang’s group is out of breath sitting around trying to catch some air into their lungs. I notice Ms. Sam instructed those who were able to walk to place the injured at one location as Kana and Miki-sensei worked on healing Suyeon. Her clothes were full of bloodstains and she lay unconscious next to Yasu who still has a fever.

“How is she?” I asked Kana as I approached her.

"She's out of harm's way." She whispers with a solemn look as she stroke Suyeons hair. “Luckily, my healing abilities are high level or else, I wouldn't be able to recover her broken bones. She broke her leg into tiny pieces and fractured most of her ribs. Some of it punctured her insides but luckily, I learned a new skill after we killed those one-eye things. Reading the description, it lets me heal anything. But, I can only use it once a day.”

Kana never felt excited about learning new healing skills. I know she's not hoping to use them all soon enough but, with Yasu and now Suyeon, it's not long before their abilities skyrocket due to being overused.

“Damn this girl, she started picking up Yasu’s habits of putting herself in danger," Kana whispers as she helped Miki-sensei close most of Suyeon’s open wounds.

"But, if it wasn't for her, we probably would have still been fighting that Earth god," Miki-sensei whispers as she looks at Suyeon with a pained expression. She probably remembered what Suyeon had to go through to save all of us.

“Dammit.” I couldn't help feeling hopeless as a bitter knot form in my throat.

“How’s Yasu’s condition-“ Ms. Sam tried asking us but suddenly, the whole place rumbled and everything shook violently causing her to fall over.

Small pieces of rock fell from the ceiling and we all couldn't do anything but protect our head as we lay on the ground and wait it out. I used myself to cover Yasu’s body while Ms. Sam used herself to cover little Nala. Kana protected Suyeon and everyone else did the same, covering for the injured or themselves. The rumbling got louder and louder and I thought the cave would crumble above us. It was too violent that we couldn't stand up without falling back down. After waiting it out for a couple of minutes, the rumbling stopped and thanks to Lisa, the cave managed to keep itself from crumbling as she tried her best to rebuild rocks over and over again.

“I-is it over?” I hear a voice and I see Amaguchi slowly sitting up looking around. Some of the torches Lisa placed have fallen down the ground and cracks have formed on the walls that traveled up to the ceiling. The explosion was big enough to probably reach the side of the mountain. If we would have kept running, we might have been caught in its blast with no cover and nowhere else to hide.

“I think it’s over. Should we check outside?” Lisa says as she rebuilds the walls and ceiling. The cracks slowly disappeared as she chanted something. It seems like she finally ran out of juice as she slumps to the ground breathing hard.

“You okay?” Amaguchi asked her and she nods as she sat down the ground.

“Y-yeah. I feel like I ran out of magic power. I hope there’s no more explosion, I feel like I won’t be able to rebuild anything for a while.” Lisa says and everyone remained prone for a while. After a few more minutes or maybe an hour passing by, we slowly got up still wary for any follow up explosion or anything that can form out of the ground. I notice Lisa walked towards the entrance and I grabbed her hand before she went any further.

“Don't. We don't know how hot it is out there. It might be hot enough to burn as alive. It’s better to not open it for a while.” I tell her and she nods as she sits back down.

After adjusting to the darkness of the cave, I'm able to get a proper view of everyone's expression. Some were in tears while some are hugging their loved ones out of joy. I felt butterflies in my stomach as excitement and the sense of accomplishment fills my core. We sat around for a while and luckily; there wasn't any other explosion as everything became quiet.

“Agh, my throat is dry.” I hear Lisa says with a raspy voice. “I feel like my magic is back, let me try something with these new skills I learned.”

She quickly stands up and walks towards the empty part of the cave. Using her sword, she stabbed the ground while chanting a command and a cyan blue light emerged from the ground so bright I went blind for a minute. Once it disappeared and I was able to adjust to the darkness again and I notice she made a pool of water. A perfect rectangle shape making it looks like a swimming pool.

I see her takes some crystals off her bag and throw it in to illuminate the bottom. She started drinking from the pool she created by cupping her hands into the water and taking big gulps. After a while, she activated her magic again as a water ball emerges from the water instantly freezing and turn into a ball of ice. She dropped it and the ice sank a bit before it floated back up the surface.

"Guys, this is drinkable water," Lisa says pointing at the pool of water behind her. "If you need to wash, I'm going to create another one on the other side."

She walks towards the other end of the cave and everyone came rushing towards the pool to get a drink.

"Stay here, I'll get us some water," I told Kana who remained at Suyeon’s and Yasu’s side. She gave me a weak nod and I can see she exhausted from healing them non-stop. I took out the water container I got from Yasu and walked to the pool of water to fill it up. I took a couple of gulp before heading back to Kana. I hand her the water container and she didn't notice until I put it on her cheek.

"Ah, that's cold." She tells me as she grabs the container. I see that she was falling asleep probably due to overusing her healing skills.

“Go rest. We’ll stay in here and wait it out for a couple of hours before heading out to check.” I tell her and she gave me a nod.

“Can we really relax now? What if that thing is still alive and transformed again?” Lisa asks me as she sits down near us after creating the other pool of water.

“It died. I saw the orb when I got Suyeon out. Its health was zero.” Mamoru replies to her.

"Thank you," I tell him remembering he's the reason why Suyeon is alive.

"You don't have to thank me, we're a team," He looks at Suyeon with regret. “I felt bad leaving her in the dungeon by herself. I didn't want to do that again.”

It's nice to see that he had broken out of his depression and started talking to us again.

"Still, you did help her destroy that thing and even saved her," I tell him and he gave me a nod in agreement.

“By the way, why did you tell me to freeze that thing in the water?” Lisa’s words made everyone look at me for answers.

“Yeah kiddo. Did you figure something out?” Goro-sensei asked as he sat beside us. It seems like everyone is starting to relax a bit as they start forming a group and using some of the torches, created their own campfire huddling around it. Since Mamoru verified that it died, we can relax a bit, as no one will be able to find us in here.

“Well, I was carefully observing it trying to figure out its weakness. Once Suyeon kicked that thing into the water, I noticed something was off.” Kana says what was on my mind.

“Like what?” Lisa asked.

"When we were fighting it before, it usually would disappear and emerge somewhere else," Kana replied and I nod in agreement knowing what she was talking about. She checked Yasu’s and Suyeons temperature but kept talking about what we figured out.

“But, when it was in the water, rather than emerging somewhere else, it actually swam back to shore. So I put the pieces together and in the end, it needs to be close to land to be able to use its skills.”

“Hmm now that you talk about it, it did keep using the rocks around the area to rebuild itself," Goro-sensei says with his hand on his chin thinking about it. “Even when we got it trapped in the ice, it tried to pull rocks from the shore.”

What he said made me remember once Suyeon flew up the sky, rocks suddenly started to form like tentacles trying to free the Earth God. We had to deflect them and give enough time for Suyeon to descend into my sword.

“Can’t believe you thought of that so quick in that situation.” Lisa looks at Kana at awe. I couldn’t blame her, even I wasn’t thinking of it till Kana pointed it out.

“What I can’t believe is, how strong she is. I think she might be stronger than Yasu.” Kana whispers as she checks on Suyeon.

“Yeah, that was some crazy stuff. Holy shit she descended it into oblivion.” Amaguchi says and we all couldn't forget the image of Suyeon descending from the sky like a superhero.

"Damn, I thought we were all going to die." Dorang blurted out as he slumps back.

“All I was thinking was trying to survive," Amaguchi says as he huddles closer to the torch. “I’m not going to lie, I even thought about telling everyone to just run away.”

“Same here. I was starting to think it was impossible without Yasu around.” Lisa says as she lay’s on her back. I felt my throat lock as if I was choking on a fish bone.

"We need to get our priorities straight," I tell everyone and they all look at me.

“What do you mean?” Lisa asked me sitting back up.

"Don't you guys feel frustrated?" Amaguchi says and I see him holding his hand out towards the ceiling while lying down. For the first time, he wasn't joking around. He was showing a serious expression that he rarely express. “I feel like a fish inside a fishbowl.”

No one said anything as we all probably felt the same. Our weakness is limiting us so much we have no choice but to rely on Yasu and now, Suyeon at difficult situations like these.

“Urgh! I don't know what I’m saying. I’m going to rest.” Amaguchi says as he turns to the side without saying anything after.

Everyone didn’t do much after that. The food that was supposed to be eaten was probably obliterated outside. We decided to just keep using the torch since creating a campfire inside the cave without ventilation can cause us to suffocate. I felt hungry as time went by but luckily, some of the people have a few stale slices of bread in their bags. Some were stupid enough to grab their belongings during the whole ordeal but now, I'm kind of glad they did since they were able to share their food with us. It's not enough to survive by tomorrow. But by then, the outside should be a lot safer to venture out. We have to leave as soon as we get a chance.

We’re completely in the dark but, most of the people in the cave began to yawn and some fell asleep with their group. Kana woke up not long ago and switched with Ms. Sam and Miki-sensei to tend the wounded. They barely had energy left and some of their skills wasn't as strong as Kana's who was able to heal much more severe wounds. Yasu and Suyeon have completely healed but remained unconscious.

Yasu still has a fever and we told everyone to help him sweat by huddling around his body. Takumi lent Yasu some clean clothes he had stored in his dimensional bag but he only had enough for a couple of people in which we gave to the girls and washed our shirt in the pool of water instead.

“Go get some rest. I’ll keep watch of these two. It's not like there’s any monster in this cave.” Kana whispers to me as I started to doze off. Even I wanted to stay up and help her, my body is telling me otherwise.

“Thanks. Wake me up if anything.” I tell her and I placed myself near Goro-sensei who snored loudly. I was so tired I went to sleep in an instant the minute I closed my eyes. I was woken up with a gentle shake and I see Kana looking right at me.

“Wake up Daikichi.” I hear her say and I rub my eyes trying to remove the crust off them.

“Ugh, its time to switch?” I asked her and she shook her head.

"Everyone woke up so we’re thinking of leaving this cave. We have no food left." She tells me and I look around spotting everyone near the water. Either washing their face or on the other pool drinking their fill to subside the hunger. I stretch out my arms yawning and I felt refreshed in a short amount of time.

“How long was I asleep?” I look at Kana with one-eye closes as the crust started stinging it.

“Probably like six to seven hours. I counted in my head the minutes the best I can but, we don't have a watch in this place.” She tells me.

"Wow, It feels like fell asleep an hour ago," I tell her slowly standing up. I gave her a peck on her cheek before walking towards the pool of water where everyone is washing their face.

"Morning sunshine. How's beauty sleep?" Amaguchi asked me as he walks past me handing me his face towel.

"Thanks, I didn't know I slept that much," I tell him. Sleeping in the dark and waking up in the dark skews up my perception of time.

“Same here. Probably because we woke up in the dark.” He told me reading what’s on my mind.

“You should be an oracle, you keep reading my mind," I tell him.

“What?” He looked confused making me chuckle at his expressions.

I placed my hand on top of his shoulder and gave him a pitying look. "It's ok, you don't have to hide it. I read your mind to. You keep telling yourself you're pretty."

“Very funny. I don't need to tell myself that. I already know it." He replies back, flipping a non-existent long hair. I laugh a bit more before we part ways as I walk towards the water to wash my face while he walks to the other pool to take a sip. Lisa kept refilling the water with Ice keeping it cold. But the ice was large enough to cool down the whole cave also as I felt the hair strands stand up around my arms.

After washing my face, everyone started getting ready to go outside. We discussed that only me, Lisa, and Amaguchi will go outside to see if it’s safe. We need Takumi with everyone else since he’s the only one that might be able to give proper protection to everyone.

“Then we’ll go look for some food and maybe another place to camp," I tell them as I grab the water container Kana handed to me. “But what I’m more worried about is the condition outside.”

“If anything, I can close it really quick so Goro-sensei, get your shield ready to block any heat just in case," Lisa says and Goro-sensei gave Lisa a nod of agreement.

"Ok Lisa, open it," I tell her as I ready myself. I was thinking about the monsters coming back so we needed to prepare to deal with them. She chanted a few words and the rubble in front of the cave entrance started crumbling. I was expecting a hot gust of wind to come in but nothing. Not even sunlight.

After opening the cave entrance all the way, the moon is as high as it can get hovering over us illuminating the surrounding area with ease. The cold breeze relaxed our minds but, the trees that surrounded the mountain is now a wasteland. Some were scorched black while some were completely gone from the roots as it slowly burned away.

I step out and I notice how completely different it was compared before. I walk to the side tracing the mountain and I didn’t need to walk any further to see how far the damage has reached. The whole area was unrecognizable and if it was any bigger, it might have reached our cave.

"Holy shit," I whisper looking at an evened out area that is slowly coming towards the center.

“Hey, do you think that thing dropped something?” Amaguchi asked looking out as far as he can but we can't even see the location of the source of the explosion as water started feeling up the crater.

"Only one way to find out, let's go to the center of the crater and see. Also, we need to catch a fish so Lisa, are you able to freeze something that big?" I asked her pointing at a distance where all of the water has started to fill up on.

“Probably, don't know really how far I can freeze things.” She replied. We started walking towards the center of the crater and having the ground below us evened out due to the explosion made it easier to get there. As we reached the edge of the water, Lisa activated her skill and froze the lake in place.

“Well, I'll be damned. You are the ice queen. You are so cold. Wait, why do my feet feel cold." Amaguchi looked down and noticed he got his foot frozen with the lake. “Mind unfreezing me?”

“You idiot. Who told you to step on the water while I’m freezing it.” She tells Amaguchi who just gave a shrug that he didn’t know. After freeing him, Lisa created snow above the water to make it easier for us to walk to the center.

“Wow, this place looks so different. Look how deep we are.” I say as I look at the rim of the crater from a distance, which goes up a higher than the three of us standing on top each other.

"We're like a couple of yards down. Or is it meters? Meh, I don't know I don't wanna do the math." Amaguchi says as he looks down below trying to see if there's anything below the layer of ice. "Damn, below us look scary. It's pitch black."

“Go down there and swim. It should be good for you.” Lisa says that made me chuckle a bit.

“Hurrr you’re very funny I forgot to laugh. We are in the center, right? What if that thing dropped an item and it went down there." He tells us and even when I'm tempted to check, I opt out to wait in the morning where it's safer. We saw some fish fall from the outside like and we managed to get a few of them. We walked back towards the entrance of the cave and Lisa has made the entrance bigger and transformed it into a doorway. Takumi left as soon as we got back and after a while, he came back with logs stored in his bag. He quickly got to work building a door and bed, and other things that would make it easier for us while we stayed in the cave.

“We’ll walk around the other side tomorrow to look for food. We’ll go look for any village or something.” I tell them and then nod as we sat around a fire pit Takumi build near the entrance.

We left the door he made wide open letting some ventilation get into the cave while cooking the fishes. We handed out the fish making sure everyone got an even portion and even I felt it wasn’t enough. Once everyone ate, some went back to sleep while others helped around keeping their mind off the situation. Even when we’re safer now, some can’t help fear the future. As of now, we are lost on what to do. So far, we’ve been following Yasu and with him unconscious, it feels like we can’t move forward. After a while, the sun started rising exposing a light blue sky as if the storm never happened. Lisa, me, and Amaguchi set out to look for food while everyone else stayed behind.

“So, what do we do now?” Amaguchi asked as we walked back towards the center of the crater.

"Well first, let's see if there's anything at the center of that. Do you think those rock walls would hold the water above?" I asked Lisa and she gave me a nod. I asked her to make a wall around blocking more water from getting to the center of the crater. This way it's a lot easier to dive in and dive out when the water in the middle isn't too deep.

"I reinforced it making it the same material as the cave walls. Even a small explosion won't destroy it." She tells me as she points above us.

"Ok cool, well, let's see what's under that. But damn, why is the water black still." Amaguchi says as he runs towards the water and ran back out. “Don't want my foot frozen again by the ice queen.”

“Ha-ha, very funny you idiot. I don't need to freeze it, I’ll just pick up all the water and dump it in your head.” Lisa says and I know she’s not joking while Amaguchi laughs nonchalantly.

As Lisa said, she used her magic to turn the body of water into a water giant ball. I see her struggling but somehow, she managed to separate another water ball away from the big one. She dropped some fishes on the ground before dumping the water back in place.

“Is there something in it?” I asked her while quickly picking up the fishes while she struggles to float the water ball towards us.

“Ugh..Y-yeah, usually when there’s something inside the water ball, I feel the weight in my hand. This one seems heavy. Watch out while I drop it.” She says and she dropped the water ball right next to Amaguchi. It left a loud thud as if there was a bowling ball inside.

“Oh shit!” Amaguchi suddenly jumped when he saw the crystal. Even we got into battle position thinking it's the Earth God. “Wait, I think that's loot.”

“Hey! Don't approach it!” I tell him as he slowly goes near it.

"Oh shit, it is loot. I think it’s loot. I don't see any name or anything on it.” Amaguchi says as the clouds above us moved away from the sun and it shone down on the crystal revealing its inside.

“That's so pretty~," Lisa says as she tries to pick it up but she couldn't. "Holy shit, it's also really damn heavy. No wonder I was struggling earlier."

“Haha, weakling. Let me show you how to do it." Amaguchi says rolling up his invisible sleeves and when he tried to pick it up he stopped halfway.

“Hey, what happened?” I asked as he just stayed bending down.

"I uh, pulled a muscle, it hurts when I move," Amaguchi says and Lisa started laughing. We tried to slowly help him up and Lisa suddenly kicked him straight. Amaguchi cried in pain jumping around while Lisa laughed and even I chuckled a bit seeing him move weirdly.

"What happened mister strong? You pulled an itty bitty muscle?" Lisa jokes around as Amaguchi tries to catch his breath.

"Ugh, you ass. That hurt. Let's just get that thing in our bag and get back in camp, grandpa wants to lay down." Amaguchi says slowly limping towards the camp as he grabs his lower back. Lisa still laughing activated her skill and encased the diamond ball with water. She struggles to pick it up but she managed to elevate it a few feet before dropping it in her bag.

“So what does the bag feel like? Did it make it heavier?” I asked her as we walked back to camp.

“Nope, it feels like it’s not there. What do we do with it?” She asked me as I help Amaguchi walk putting his arm around my shoulders.

“I don't know, maybe sell it?” I say not really caring about the value of the diamond.

“We’re definitely we're not selling that thing," Amaguchi says as he limps beside me.

After a while, we reached back to camp and as soon as Miki-sensei sees us, she helped Amaguchi lay down and helped heal his back. Lisa made another room for the injured while we got busy descaling more fish we caught and cooking them for everyone. Her class is really usefull as she was able to control all four elements. We stayed for a while and talked about what we found and everyone was intrigued when Lisa showed them the diamond ball.

Mamoru catered to Yasu and Suyeon along with the other injured while Ms. Sam, Miki-sensei, and Kana came out of the other room to eat the fishes we had left for them. We told them what we found outside and they seem excited to see the giant diamond ball. After resting for a while, we told Kana along with Miki-sensei and Ms. Sam to rest while we take over tending to the wounded. Kana protest until Ms. Sam persuaded her saying they needed to be in tiptop shape just in case anything happens.

"Ok guys, let's go," Takumi says and he started walking towards the door along with Lisa and Amaguchi following behind him. I decided to stay while Takumi went with Lisa and Amaguchi to explore the other side of the forest and look for food. The minute Takumi open the door, they stopped on their tracks as if they came face to face with something. None of them said anything as they started in each other’s eyes slowly inching towards the weapons on their side.

“Guys, everything good-“ I suddenly stopped as Takumi quickly draw his weapon. As he stepped to the side a bit, I finally got a glimpse of what they’re staring at.

“Hello there, traitor. Finally found you.” One of the guys says and I recognize him as the one who slapped Kana.

“Wow, didn't think you have the balls to do anything let alone call people names," Takumi says as he steps forward. “Nice to see you again Junpei…and everyone else.”

I step back slowly inching my way towards the door where Yasu and Suyeon lie unconscious on the other side. I kept backing up hoping that I’ll be able to get to the other side undetected while Takumi kept them busy. All I need to do is inform Mamoru. Out of all of the people in this cave, he’s the only one that can get us out in an instant.